In making this proposal, Young was likely influenced by the status of enslaved Black people in Illinois or, perhaps, during gradual emancipation in New York, a process he had personally observed. He may have also considered New Jersey’s recent transformation of its remaining slaves into “perpetual apprentices.” Young’s proposal was clearly grounded in his own paternalistic interpretation of the curses of Cain and Canaan. Even still, Young’s ideal conception of servitude was ill-defined. He likely thought of it as a form of apprenticeship. In this way Mormon enslavers could lawfully assert some kind of limited control over their former slaves without reducing them to property. Such a plan was unlikely to threaten Young’s ultimate goal of statehood for Deseret.