The Mormon Migration The Migration of Mormons to Utah was different from any other migration at the time the others were all about gaining land that they couldn t get in the East Mormons move to Utah to get away from religious persecution Joseph Smith 1805 1844 o born in Vermont and lived in New York State o he lived in upstate New York near Buffalo o At this time the Second Great Awaking happening to get people back in the church and to find new people for the church o A problem arises in this Second Great Awaking was that every religion would go into town and say that they are the only religion or their church was the only thing to save you or get you into heaven o The people at this time were confused because of this and at this time new churches started popping up to fit everyone needs o In some areas there were multiple revivals at a time and these areas got the name Burned out areas meaning they were burned out of religion o In September 1823 Smith claimed the Moroni the Angel came and talked to him about tablets that were buried near him on a hill that were buried there 1405 the Angel told him to find the tablets and translate them o It took Smith 4 years to find the golden tablets in 1827 and they are written in reformed Egyptian and there are seer stones so he can translate the tablets o Smith would sit behind a screen and would tell the people around him what to write down and no one ever saw the tablets except Smith people asked about it but no one ever saw it o It took 3 months to translate the tablets and it ended up with a large book that cost a lot of money to produce o The book of Mormon is about the story of Lehi fleeing Israel and making it t America it goes through 600 BC to 400 AD then the group split into two different groups that formed and fought and the winners where the Indians we have in America o The book was published in the same year and they passed this book out to everyone around the community and Smith started to preach about this religion to the people o The people around the community started to believe in this religion after reading the book by Smith the problem that occurs that some people around the community don t like Smith s new religion and his book o In 1831 Smith moved his church and people to Ohio because the people in the community start to persecute the religion and the people o The church remained there until 1837 in Kirtland Ohio the Mormons started a newspaper and made a temple where they could worship in everywhere they stopped they made temples o Smith in Kirtland had a revelation that people needed away from anything that had caffeine alcohol and nicotine in it o Smith also started to have people leave their estates to the church after they died o The Mormons started a bank in Kirtland and it started out good and in 1837 the great panic happened and the bank failed after that the people who had their money in their started to attack the Mormons because they owned the bank o Smith moved the Mormons again and moved them to Missouri this still isn t a good place for the religion this was because there was a lot of religions already there and because they didn t want slaves which Missouri was a slave state o The people of Missouri started to attack the people because they did not like their anti slave talk so the burn cabins and raid the towns o The Danites form in the Mormon it s a secret group within the Mormon group start to attack the people around them and push back o The Governor of Missouri makes a new law saying that they have to get rid of Mormons so that the state will be at peace o So the Missouri Militia rounds up some Mormons and kills them in cold blood some of the church leaders are imprisoned and Smith is even on tried to be hanged o The army leader doesn t hang any of the church leaders and the church leaders are left free only if they leave and never come back the Mormons leave to go back to Illinois 1839 o When Smith was in jail Brigham Young rises up in the Mormon faith he was a carpenter he was a Baptist before converting and he becomes a voice for the church and when Smith was is in jail he takes his place o Young becomes Smith s right hand man when he got out of jail Young ways the level headed man in the group that knew the boundaries of things o In Illinois the Mormons founded Nauvoo the city was founded near the Mississippi river and it thrived at the same time it had a lot of people in it o The Mormons belonged to the Whig party and they hated Andrew Jackson and the state was a Whig Party state so the state government allowed Nauvoo to become a state within the state o Nauvoo had its own constitution and its own law and army it was a state within a state and all they had to do was vote for the Whig Party during the time of voting o Non Mormons start to get jealous at the Mormons and so Smith makes two bad decision he introduces polygamy into the church and he was going to run for President as a Whig o The Mormons mind set was to stay out of politics and the government one of the factions inside the Mormon faith made a newspaper bad talking about Smith and Smith has it destroyed o Smith leaves Nauvoo to go on business in Cartharage Illinois and he is arrested o Some Anti Mormon group finds out and storms that jail and takes him and his there and put in jail brother out and killed them