SMITH, JOSEPH

born Dec. 23, 1805, Sharon, Vt., U.S. died June 27, 1844, Carthage, Ill. originally Joseph Smith, Jr. American prophet whose writings, along with the Bible, provide the theological foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Mormon denominations. Smith grew up in western New York at a time of intense religious revivalism. He was a literate but unschooled lad from a large family, and his neighbours at Palmyra, N.Y., remembered him as a diviner who dug for buried treasure. One day in the woods, at the age of 14, Joseph Smith experienced what he conceived to be an intense spiritual revelation of God and Jesus Christ. In 1827 he claimed that an angel had directed him to buried golden plates whose engraved surfaces contained a history of the American Indians describing them as descendants of Hebrews who centuries earlier had sailed to North America by way of the Pacific. This Book of Mormon he translated from reformed Egyptian with the aid of special stones. Published in 1830, the book was offered by him as scientific evidence of his divine calling. Most non-Mormon scholars, however, regard the book as a collection of local legends of Indian origin, fragments of autobiography, and current religious and political controversies (especially that connected with the Anti-Masonic movement), all transformed with remarkable ingenuity into a religious document. Smith claimed that the church that he organized on April 6, 1830, at Fayette, N.Y., restored the ancient, primitive Christian religion. The converts whom it attracted during the next decade followed him from New York to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. But they were forced to press continually westward in search of economic opportunity and freedom from persecution. Their successive neighbours were suspicious of the Mormons' unorthodox cooperative society ruled by an ecclesiastical oligarchy. Non-Mormons were also hostile toward the sect's rumoured practice of polygamy. Although Smith's revelation on this subject was not made public until 1852, nor is it supported in the Book of Mormon, there is evidence that he may have married as many as 50 wives. Publicly, however, he acknowledged only his first, Emma Hale Smith, who bore him nine children. The young prophet governed his people by announcing periodic revelations on widely divergent matters. He combined elements of Jewish and Christian mysticism with the goal of perpetual prosperity and sought to establish Mormonism as a complete way of life. In 1839 Smith finally led his flock to Commerce, Ill., which he renamed Nauvoo. Mormon faithful quickly followed, and the population soon reached 20,000, making it the largest city in Illinois. With rival Democrats and Whigs both hoping to win the Mormon vote, the city was granted a liberal charter by the state. Smith served as its mayor and commanded the Nauvoo Legion, a part of the state militia, gaining a reputation as one of the West's most illustrious citizens. In February 1844, when he announced his candidacy for the U.S. presidency, however, suspicion and rivalry began to close in upon him. A handful of Mormon dissenters attacked him in their opposition newspaper on grounds of polygamy and political ambition. Smith thereupon ordered their press destroyed. Threats of mob violence followed. After Smith called out the Nauvoo militia to protect the town, he was charged with treason and imprisoned, along with his brother Hyrum, in the Carthage city jail. Despite promises of protection from the governor of Illinois, Thomas Ford, a mob of armed men with blackened faces stormed the jail on June 27 and murdered the brothers. Smith was thus elevated to martyrdom. His church was divided, the majority, led by Brigham Young, migrating to Great Salt Lake in Utah. A smaller group, which settled in Independence, Mo., was led by the eldest of Smith's four surviving sons. In addition to the Book of Mormon, the Latter-day Saints also use as scriptural sources Smith's Doctrine and Covenants (1835) and The Pearl of Great Price (1842). Additional reading Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History, 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged (1971); Donna Hill, Joseph Smith, the First Mormon (1977); Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism (1984).