Cultures In Conflict

Cover

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Title Page, Copyright Page

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CONTENTS

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pp. v-vii

PREFACE

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pp. ix-x

This book employs documents to relate and interpret the most broadly significant episode in Illinois during the 1840s-the rise and fall of Mormon Nauvoo. It is a story of cultural clash, of escalating tension, fear, hatred, and violence between two social groups, which climaxed in a miniature civil war. Despite extensive historical research and writing on Mormonism in Nauvoo, there has been little in-depth investigation of primary documents relating specifically ...

INTRODUCTION

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pp. 1-12

The so-called Mormon conflict that occurred in Hancock County, Illinois, during the 1840s has been frequently discussed by historians but is not well understood. Nevertheless, the main events in that famous frontier episode are easily summarized. Expelled from Missouri in 1839, the Mormons fled to western Illinois, where they soon established the city of Nauvoo under the leadership of ...

PART I

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pp. 13-64

During the bitter winter of 1838-1839 some five thousand Latter Day Saints crossed the Mississippi River from Missouri and settled in western Illinois. Since the organization of the Mormon Church almost ten years before, this group of religious pioneers, led by Joseph Smith, Jr., had received the brunt of political rhetoric, social ostracism, and in some cases, mob violence. These people came to ...

PART II

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pp. 65-108

Many non-Mormons in Hancock County probably disliked the Mormons from the first, in the same way that most Americans have generally disliked what they have viewed as religious fanaticism, but they were initially disposed toward tolerance because they sympathized with the Saints as refugees from oppression in Missouri. That view, however, soon began to change. Some of the ...

PART III

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pp. 109-172

No aspect of the Mormon conflict has been less thoroughly and critically examined than the developments within Nauvoo in 1843 and 1844 that led to dissent, repression, and violence.¹ For too long the trouble in Nauvoo has been understated rather than understood. The vast majority of scholars interested in Mormon history have been believing Latter-day Saints for whom the Mormon ...

PART IV

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pp. 173-240

Perhaps the greatest mistake of Joseph Smith's life—certainly it was the most costly—was the destruction of the Expositor, published by Mormon dissidents in June 1844. In another time, another circumstance, Smith might have gotten away with this action. Not this time. The individuals Smith sought to destroy were part of Mormonism's middle class, persons who enjoyed both power and prestige ...

PART V

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pp. 241-296

With the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, a detente between the two factions in Hancock County occured and lasted several months. For their part, the anti-Mormons were afraid that the Mormons would call out the Nauvoo Legion and lay waste to Carthage and Warsaw. Moreover, the reaction to the murders of the Smiths was almost universally negative. The press castigated the lynching ...

PART VI

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pp. 297-350

The Mormon conflict ended twice. On 24 September 1845, the Saints agreed to leave Illinois, capitulating to non-Mormon pressure which had expanded well beyond the limits of Hancock County. ¹ It was a reluctant exodus, which began in early February 1846 and resulted in the departure of perhaps twelve thousand Latter Day Saints by late spring. The second ending of the conflict was ...

BIBLlOGRAPHIC NOTE

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pp. 351-354

I N D E X

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pp. 355-368

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

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