Oh, I should add... at the time polygamy was LEGAL.

1. Polygamy must be approved by God and his prophet. That approval ended with Wilford Woodruff's revelation and the reception of it by the church.
2. Women must agree to it. If the first spouse(s) says no, then no. Husbands had no choice.
3. Husbands must provide for families. Thus, only wealthy husbands could participate. It meant more work.
4. Oftentimes widows and unmarriable women were used, to ensure they had someone they could demand food, clothing and shelter from, as well as supply the needs of their children. As Mark Twain said, anyone who would marry more than one of those pioneer women deserved to go to heaven.
5. Joseph Smith practiced marriage that was not physical at all, but only spiritual. We say "eternity but not time." For instance, they already had a husband not of our faith but they would be married to someone else eternally. (This doesn't make any sense unless you understand what we teach on eternal families, and this practice ended with Brigham Young.)
6. We never removed anyone from the church who did not accept the teaching, nor did we require belief of it to join. You should read Joseph F. Smith's testimony to congress on this.
7. If women were unhappy with the arrangement, they were free to divorce and remarry. Many of Brigham Young's wives left him through divorce, and married single men. Thus we see that, contrary to malicious reports, single marriage was preferred to polygamy.
8. It was taught as a temporary practice to address a temporary need - the lack of faithful men to be husbands and fathers, and the surplus of faithful women. God needed more kids raised by faithful men, so he commanded us to practice it temporarily.

There is much more to say on the matter. Unfortunately most of the writing on the subject is by those who never experienced it or even witnessed it. Contemporary accounts show that sexual gratification had nothing to do with it, and women more often were more enthusiastic about it than the men.