Understanding the Persecution Faced by Early Latter-day Saints

Why early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faced violence, legal obstacles, and forced displacement across America.

By Garret Merkley · Explainer · Jun 10, 2026

Branched from Lucy Mack Smith: Matriarch, Chronicler, and Pillar of Early Latter-day Saint History

Quick take

Early Latter-day Saints faced coordinated violence, legal persecution, and forced expulsion driven by religious intolerance, economic competition, and political fears.
Persecution escalated from mob attacks and property destruction to state-sanctioned violence, forcing the church to migrate repeatedly from New York to Ohio to Missouri to Illinois.
The conflict was rooted in theological differences, perceived threats to local power structures, and the Saints' rapid growth and communal practices.
Persecution shaped early Mormon identity, theology, and the church's emphasis on gathering and self-sufficiency.

Early Latter-day Saints—members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints founded by Joseph Smith in 1830—faced systematic persecution across multiple states over roughly two decades. This wasn't random hostility but coordinated campaigns of violence, legal obstruction, and forced displacement that drove the church from New York to Ohio to Missouri to Illinois, ultimately claiming lives and destroying property. The persecution stemmed from a collision of religious intolerance, economic anxiety, political suspicion, and the Saints' own communal practices that threatened established social hierarchies.

Why Persecution Began: Religious and Social Conflict

The Saints' core beliefs provoked genuine alarm in Protestant America. They claimed Joseph Smith received new divine revelation through the Book of Mormon and ongoing prophecy—a direct challenge to the sufficiency of the Christian Bible and existing denominations' authority. To mainstream churches, this looked like heresy. Equally threatening was the Saints' claim to be the "only true church," which implied other Christians were spiritually misguided. This aggressive exclusivity, combined with their rapid recruitment of converts, created friction in tight-knit communities.

Beyond theology, the Saints' communal practices alarmed neighbors. In Ohio and Missouri, the church emphasized economic cooperation and "gathering"—pooling resources and purchasing land collectively. To local merchants and farmers, this looked like unfair competition and a clannish takeover. Rumors circulated (some false, some rooted in real practices) about shared property, plural marriage, and secretive oaths. Political leaders worried about a voting bloc that followed church leadership rather than local interests. These economic and political anxieties often mattered more to mobs than theological disputes.

How Persecution Unfolded: From Mobs to State Violence

Persecution escalated in stages. In New York (1830–1831), the Saints faced ridicule, property damage, and occasional violence, but the community was small and dispersed. When they moved to Ohio (1831–1838), growth accelerated and tensions intensified. Mobs tarred and feathered leaders, destroyed printing presses, and attacked homes. In Missouri (1838–1839), violence became systematic and deadly. Governor Lilburn Boggs issued an "extermination order" authorizing state militia to drive the Saints out or kill them. The Haun's Mill massacre in October 1838 killed approximately 17 Saints, including children. Hundreds were imprisoned; women and children were left homeless in winter.

In Illinois (1839–1846), the Saints found temporary refuge in Nauvoo, where they built a thriving city. But as their population swelled and Joseph Smith's political ambitions grew—he ran for U.S. president in 1844—local opposition resurged. Smith's arrest for treason, his mysterious death in jail in 1844, and continuing anti-Mormon sentiment eventually forced another exodus. This pattern repeated because the Saints' success itself bred resentment. Each time they prospered, local majorities mobilized to expel them.

The Role of Gender, Family, and Witness

Women bore particular burdens during persecution. They endured physical violence, lost homes and possessions, and often became primary caregivers during forced migrations. Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith's mother, documented her family's suffering and the broader community's resilience. Her account and those of other women provide crucial testimony to the human cost of persecution—not abstract theological conflict, but children separated from parents, pregnant women exposed to winter, and families rebuilding repeatedly from nothing. Women's letters and journals preserved details of mob attacks, legal harassment, and the emotional toll that official histories sometimes omit.

Why Persecution Mattered Then and Now

Persecution shaped early Mormonism profoundly. It reinforced the Saints' sense of being a chosen people facing worldly opposition—a narrative baked into church theology and identity. The emphasis on gathering, communal self-sufficiency, and loyalty to church leadership grew partly as survival strategies. Persecution also drove westward expansion; after Illinois, the Saints ultimately migrated to Utah, where geographic isolation offered protection. The experience left lasting scars: the church developed institutional memory of external threat, which influenced its defensive posture toward critics and outsiders for generations.

Historically, the persecution reveals broader American religious intolerance in the 1830s–1840s. The Saints were not alone—Mormons, Catholics, Jews, and religious minorities faced mob violence in antebellum America with little legal protection. The failure of courts and governors to protect the Saints' constitutional rights exposed gaps in American religious freedom. For scholars, the persecution illustrates how new religions face particular hostility when they challenge established authority, grow rapidly, or practice unconventional communal or family structures. The Saints' experience is a case study in how religious minorities navigate majority hostility.

Key Persecution Timeline

1830–1831 (New York): Ridicule, property damage, minor violence against small community
1831–1838 (Ohio): Escalating mob attacks, tarring and feathering, printing press destroyed
1838–1839 (Missouri): Governor's extermination order, Haun's Mill massacre, mass imprisonment and exile
1839–1846 (Illinois): Temporary peace in Nauvoo, then renewed hostility after Smith's death in 1844
1846–1847: Forced exodus from Illinois; migration to Utah begins

Common Misconceptions

Persecution was purely religious: In fact, economic competition, political fear, and communal practices mattered as much as theology.
The Saints were passive victims: They actively defended themselves, built fortifications, organized militias, and fought back legally—which sometimes escalated tensions.
Persecution ended with westward migration: Anti-Mormon sentiment persisted in the West and influenced federal policy toward Utah Territory for decades.
All persecution claims are exaggerated: While some Saints' accounts contain rhetoric, the core facts—mob violence, property destruction, forced displacement, deaths—are well-documented in contemporary sources and legal records.

Did the U.S. government protect the Saints from persecution?

No. Local and state authorities either participated in or ignored mob violence. When Saints appealed to federal courts, they received little relief. The federal government's failure to enforce constitutional protections against religious persecution was a major grievance. This changed only after the Civil War, when federal authority over states increased.

Were the Saints' communal practices actually a threat, or was that just an excuse?

Both. The Saints did practice economic cooperation and collective land purchase, which genuinely disrupted local markets and created real economic competition. But these practices were exaggerated in rumors and used to justify violence that was disproportionate. The economic threat was real; the response was extreme.

Did persecution make the Saints more extreme or radical?

Partly. The experience hardened in-group identity and reinforced loyalty to church leadership as a survival mechanism. Some practices (like plural marriage, which became public in the 1850s) were partly justified as responses to persecution. However, persecution didn't invent radicalism—some controversial practices existed from the start but were hidden or downplayed.

How do historians verify persecution accounts?

They cross-reference Saints' journals and letters with non-Mormon sources: newspapers, court records, militia reports, and accounts from neighbors. While Saints' accounts emphasize their suffering, corroborating evidence from hostile sources confirms that mobs did attack, property was destroyed, and people were killed. The scale and severity are sometimes debated, but the core events are well-established.

Did persecution end when the Saints reached Utah?

Geographically, yes—isolation reduced mob violence. But federal hostility continued. The U.S. government opposed plural marriage, appointed non-Mormon territorial governors, and eventually sent federal troops to Utah (1857–1858). Persecution took different forms, but the Saints remained a persecuted minority in American eyes until the church renounced plural marriage in 1890.

Sources

Lucy Mack Smith, *Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet* (1853)—primary account of family experiences during persecution.
Richard E. Bennett, *Mormons at the Missouri, 1838–1839* (1987)—detailed historical study of Missouri persecution and extermination order.
David J. Whittaker, ed., *Lucy Mack Smith and the Book of Mormon* (2010)—scholarly analysis of women's roles in early church history.
Governor Lilburn Boggs, Executive Order No. 44 (October 27, 1838)—primary source text of Missouri's extermination order.