Recently, two biographies were published on Elijah Abel/Ables, a black Mormon man who held the priesthood in the nineteenth century with the blessing of Joseph Smith and many of his contemporaries. Rather than attempt a traditional review, I decided to write a conversations post with Russell Stevenson, the author of one of the two biographies. Stevenson is an independent scholar with a master’s degree in history from the University of Kentucky. He recently self-published Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables. In order to make the post easier to read, I have arranged the questions I asked and Stevenson’s responses into categories.