Illinois was both a refuge and a turning point in the history of the Latter-day Saints: after escaping confinement in Missouri, they established Nauvoo on the Mississippi River, built it into a powerful religious center, and then left the state amid escalating conflict. The same political autonomy that helped the community flourish also sharpened opposition to Joseph Smith’s rule; after his murder in Carthage, the Saints agreed to abandon Illinois and eventually the United States.

Refuge after Missouri

In April 1839, Joseph Smith and nine fellow prisoners slipped away from custody and fled across the countryside to rejoin the Saints, most of whom had already crossed the Illinois state line. Their escape followed a winter of cold and famine, while Smith and the other leaders remained jailed on charges that included treason and murder. The Saints’ arrival in Illinois was therefore not simply a move to new territory: it was a regrouping after forced displacement, under the continuing threat of further conflict.

About a month after escaping, Smith surveyed a bend in the Mississippi River in Hancock County and chose the site for a new city. The land was a low-lying, malarial swamp, difficult for people and ox teams to cross. Its disadvantages were offset by two practical facts: it was sparsely inhabited, and its owner would sell land to the Saints on credit. Construction began, and the community turned the difficult site into Nauvoo.

Nauvoo’s rapid growth and authority

Within five years, more than fifteen thousand Saints were living in and around Nauvoo—about ten times the city’s present population as described in the book. It had become the second-largest municipality in Illinois, and its growth from a swamp settlement into a city rivaling Chicago testified to the community’s ability to organize labor, land, and migration around a shared religious project.

Nauvoo was also more than a growing municipality. A charter passed by the Illinois General Assembly in December 1840 granted it unusual sovereign rights and powers. The state was seeking hardworking settlers who could contribute to its economy, and sympathy for the Mormons had increased after their expulsion from Missouri. The charter’s unintended effect was to give Smith authority that the book characterizes as making him the de facto ruler of an autonomous city-state. He took the title of King, Priest, and Ruler over Israel on Earth, commanded the disciplined Nauvoo Legion, and sought authorization from the U.S. Congress for a force of one hundred thousand men. Congress did not grant that request, but Smith’s political ambitions continued: in January 1844, he announced that he would run for president of the United States.

The city’s power rested not only on its charter and militia but also on the Saints’ political cohesion. They voted as a bloc in accordance with Smith’s direction, giving them influence in state politics. For non-Mormon residents of Hancock County, this combination of religious leadership, organized voting, and local military power raised the prospect that the community’s authority could extend beyond its own membership. Illinois offered the Saints room to rebuild, but Nauvoo’s political arrangements made that refuge a source of regional unease.

Press conflict and the road to Carthage

Tensions sharpened when Smith ordered the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor. Non-Mormon neighbors saw the act as an attack on press freedom and as evidence that Smith’s authority threatened the region’s peace. Hostility grew rapidly. On June 18, 1844, anticipating retaliation, Smith declared martial law and mobilized the five-thousand-man Nauvoo Legion.

Illinois Governor Thomas Ford, who was not unsympathetic to the Mormons, sought to prevent civil war. He demanded that Smith, Hyrum Smith, John Taylor, and others accused of destroying the press surrender for trial in Carthage, the Hancock County seat. Ford promised personal protection if Smith complied, while warning that refusal could bring the destruction of Nauvoo and the deaths of its residents. Smith initially feared that non-Mormon authorities would expose him to attack during the proceedings. He and Hyrum crossed the Mississippi River with Porter Rockwell and fled into Iowa, intending to continue west. An appeal from Emma Smith, together with the message that church members believed their leader had abandoned them, prompted Smith to return and face prosecution.

On June 24, Smith and eleven others surrendered. The journey from Nauvoo to Carthage, about twenty-five miles, passed through crowds of Illinois militiamen and other hostile onlookers. In Carthage, Ford ordered most local militia companies to disband and assigned the Carthage Greys to guard the jail and prisoners. The effort to contain the crisis did not prevent the attack there. During the assault, Hyrum was killed; John Taylor was seriously wounded; and Smith, trying to escape through a window, was shot and died. His murder in Illinois became a defining loss for the movement and left the Saints facing renewed insecurity in the state where they had sought refuge.

Violence, agreement, and departure

After Smith’s death, the conflict spread through Hancock County. The killing of Lieutenant Frank Worrell by Porter Rockwell worsened relations, and violence by both Mormons and non-Mormons brought arson and plunder across the county. More than two hundred homes were burned. Concerned that the region was again approaching civil war, Governor Ford sent four hundred troops to Nauvoo and appointed a committee of prominent figures to negotiate a settlement.

By September, Brigham Young concluded that the Saints could not remain near Hancock County. He told the committee that, in exchange for a cease-fire, the Mormons would leave Illinois and the United States the following spring. The agreement, accepted on October 1, gave them a temporary interval of peace in which to build wagons and gather supplies. But departure came sooner than planned after news of a warrant for Young’s arrest on charges of harboring counterfeiters. On February 4, 1846, the first group of emigrants crossed the dark, near-freezing Mississippi River by flatboat and landed on the Iowa shore. The exodus from Nauvoo had begun.

Illinois in the narrative

Illinois’s place in the story is marked by reversal. The state received a displaced community and supplied the legal framework that allowed Nauvoo to become a large, self-governing religious center. Yet the city’s concentration of authority, its political influence, and the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor intensified opposition among its neighbors. The resulting confrontation led from martial law and surrender to Smith’s murder, countywide violence, and an agreement to leave.

Nauvoo’s rapid creation and abrupt abandonment make Illinois a central setting in the book’s account of how refuge can become contested ground. The Saints did not leave because their settlement had failed to grow; they left after its success and political independence became inseparable from conflict. Crossing the Mississippi into Illinois had offered a new beginning. Crossing it again, westward into Iowa, marked the end of that beginning and the start of another migration.