Sumith Prasad
In Netflix’s Western series ‘American Primeval,’ James Wolsey is a Mormon leader who commands a gang of men who belong to the faith to turn against a group of pioneers who travel through Utah. The Mormons wear hoods to hide their identities and slaughter the emigrants who have been in search of a new home in the West. It is eventually revealed that Wolsey has been only following the orders of his superiors, who are none other than Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the latter’s right-hand man, Wild Bill Hickman. Even though the character’s leaders are based on actual people, his origin is not straightforward! SPOILERS AHEAD.
James Wolsey Resembles a Real Mormon Leader Named John D. Lee
James Wolsey is a fictional character with roots in reality. Through the character’s attack on a group of pioneers, ‘American Primeval’ offers a fictionalized dramatization of the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre, which caused the deaths of around 120-140 individuals who were part of a wagon train. In reality, the main perpetrator behind the massacre was not named Wolsey but John D. Lee, one of the earliest members of the Latter Day Saint Movement. Even though Lee did what Wolsey does in the period drama, the former cannot be outrightly seen as the latter’s real-life counterpart.
The similarities between Wolsey and Lee start with their roles in the fictional and real massacres, respectively. In the show, the character joins hands with a group of Native Americans to attack the pioneers, like how Lee and the Mormon leader Isaac C. Haight allegedly sent “other Indians on the war-path to help them kill the emigrants,” as per Lee’s autobiography, ‘The Life and Confession of John D. Lee.’ However, the massacre did not occur in one day, as the series depicts. The siege lasted five days, reportedly forcing the Mormons to come up with a fake proposal of truce. Then, Lee and his men killed over a hundred individuals.
The differences between Wolsey and Lee begin with the aftermath of the respective massacres. In reality, according to Smithsonian Magazine, nobody above the age of seven survived the brutality. However, in the period drama, Jacob and Abish Pratt survive the killings, which affects Wolsey, who eventually gets punished for letting the couple escape.
James Wolsey’s Fate Differs From John D. Lee’s Death
Undoubtedly, James Wolsey significantly resembles John D. Lee because of the latter’s involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. However, the real-life figure suffered from a different fate in comparison with the fictional character. After the massacre, Lee was arrested and tried by the authorities twice. After a mistrial, he had to stand for trial again, only for him to get sentenced to death by a firing squad. In the case of Wolsey, the Mormon leader is not captured or tried in the period drama. Instead, he is asked to clean up the “mess” he created by letting Jacob and Abish Pratt escape from the killings.
Wolsey leading a group of Mormons to attack Abish, one of their own, and the Shoshone tribe did not happen in real life. Instead, Lee was executed by a firing squad in Mountain Meadows. Despite these differences, ‘American Primeval’ does align with the real-life figure’s claims or statements about the massacre. After his trial, Lee presented himself as a scapegoat and claimed that the harrowing tragedy happened “by the direct command of Brigham Young” through his aforementioned autobiography. “I have been sacrificed in a cowardly, dastardly manner,” he said right before he was executed. His words can be paralleled with the depiction of Young as the person in charge of the massacre in the Western drama.
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