Escape Carolyn Jessop

“Escape” is another great book that was hard to put down. Although hard to read, this is a first- person account of life inside the world of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the derivative of the Mormon Church. This community is prominent along the Utah - Arizona border. This book gives a thrilling account of one woman’s courageous flight to freedom along with her eight children. It's hard to read because Carolyn Jessop’s story is one of non-stop abuse, from the real life nightmare that was drilled into her head as a young child and forced her into a community where violence in regularly committed against women and children in the name of God.
Carolyn Jessop tells the story of her life growing up in the …show more content…
Her new husband Merril Jessop already had three wives, but arranged plural marriages were a fundamental part of Carolyn’s history and development. Carolyn describes the mental abuse and rape she endured by him, as well as feeling helpless to protect the eight children she would go on to be forced to have with him. Three of the pregnancies almost killed her and one of her children was diagnosed with cancer of the spine. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn withstood her husband’s psychological and physical abuse as well as competed with the other three wives for his attention, affection and compassion.
Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband. He decided where she lived, what she wore and ate. He decided how her children would be treated. She worked as a teacher but he controlled her earnings and how her money would be spent. He decided when they would have sex and if Carolyn refused, he would “punish” her, which usually meant being beaten and/or some form of humiliation and torment in front of the other wives. For a multiple wife in the FLDS, her compliance with her husband is of utmost importance. It determined how much status both she and her children held in the