Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith is presented as the prophet and leader whose vision of Jackson County as holy land gave the Latter-day Saints’ settlement in the area an explicit religious and territorial purpose. His declaration that Independence should become their City of Zion came amid rapid growth, mounting local alarm, and a violent campaign that forced the Saints from their homes.

Position and Vision

Smith’s role in the account is specific: he proclaimed Jackson County holy land and commanded that Independence become the City of Zion. The stated ambition went beyond establishing a settlement. The Saints also announced an intention to become proprietors of the entire region, a prospect that made their religious project appear to local residents to carry political and territorial consequences.

Growth and Backlash

By the summer of 1833, more than a thousand Latter-day Saints lived in the county, roughly a third of its population. Their numbers seemed large enough to affect the coming fall elections. At a courthouse mass meeting, angry speeches culminated in a proclamation that Mormons were no longer welcome. The account places Smith’s declaration within this struggle over belonging and control, but does not describe him as taking part in the meeting or the violence that followed.

Expulsion and Narrative Significance

Mob attacks smashed the Mormon printing press, tarred and feathered a bishop, and drove women and children from homes in the Blue River settlement. After further clashes, more than a thousand people were forced across the Missouri River to less settled territory. The governor, Lilburn W. Boggs, then called out the militia and demanded that Mormons leave the state or face extermination. The account presents Smith’s vision as a defining element of the conflict: a claim of sacred place and collective settlement met by organized exclusion and state-backed threat. It does not supply further biographical details about Smith or describe his actions after the expulsion.