In Old Testament times, patriarchs like Abraham and Jacob practiced polygamy, which allowed them to have multiple wives. In the early nineteenth century, there were some fringe religious groups who toyed with the practice, but in general it was foreign and repugnant to most pre-Victorian Americans. Nevertheless, in Nauvoo in the 1840s, Joseph Smith taught that God commanded polygamy to be practiced by the Latter-day Saints. He described plural marriage as one part of a much grander doctrine called celestial marriage, which allows God’s children to be eternally married and to become like our exalted Heavenly Parents. This exaltation is offered to all righteous couples sealed in the new and everlasting covenant of marriage and is not conditional on a plurality of wives, which is sometimes authorized by the Lord.