Jackson County Mormon expulsion (1833)

The Jackson County Mormon expulsion (1833) was a forced removal of Latter-day Saints from Jackson County, Missouri, after months of escalating conflict with local residents. In November, vigilantes terrorized Mormon settlements and drove about 1,200 people from their homes into the cold night. Most fled north across the Missouri River and never returned to the county.

Background and Escalating Conflict

The conflict unfolded amid sharp divisions between the Saints and their Missouri neighbors. Joseph Smith preached that people could choose whether to join the Lord’s side, but those who rejected it were not owed sympathy or mercy. A 1831 revelation directed the Saints to gather in Missouri, describing the land as their inheritance and their enemies’ territory. To local residents, the command and an article in a Mormon newspaper predicting the destruction of the wicked reinforced the impression that the growing community posed a threat.

In northwestern Missouri, local opposition first took the form of town meetings, anti-Mormon resolutions, and demands that civil authorities intervene. When these efforts failed to stop the arrival of more Saints, residents of Independence and surrounding areas took action themselves. The expulsion was therefore preceded by both political protest and a growing readiness to use force.

Attacks in 1833

In July, a mob of roughly five hundred Missourians attacked two Latter-day Saints and destroyed a printing office. The immediate trigger was an article in an LDS newspaper that the attackers considered too sympathetic to antislavery views. Three days later, the mob gathered nine Mormon leaders and, under threat of death, compelled them to sign an oath promising that the Saints would leave Jackson County within a year.

The July attacks did not end the violence. That autumn, attackers razed ten homes, killed one Saint, and stoned others. The sequence moved from destroying a newspaper’s press and forcing leaders to sign a pledge to targeting Mormon households and residents across the county. The coerced promise to depart did not protect the community from further attacks.

The November Expulsion

One cold November night, vigilantes moved systematically against Mormon settlements throughout the region. After beating the men, they drove about 1,200 Saints from their homes, forcing them to flee into the darkness. Most crossed the Missouri River to the north; the majority would never return to Jackson County.

The scale of the displacement made the expulsion more than an attack on individual leaders or property. Families across multiple settlements were forced to leave, and the community’s presence in the county was broken through coordinated intimidation. The movement of the displaced Saints northward marked the immediate human consequence of the campaign.

Aftermath and Significance

The expulsion became an early, defining instance of the conflict between the Saints and their Missouri neighbors. Its course showed how hostility that began with public demands for intervention escalated into attacks on institutions, homes, and an entire population. It also left the Saints displaced from the county where Joseph Smith’s revelation had directed them to gather.

In 1836, hoping to relocate the Saints to a less populated area and prevent further bloodshed, the Missouri legislature designated Caldwell County as a zone for Mormon settlement. Many Saints in Missouri moved there from neighboring counties. By 1838, they had purchased about 250,000 acres in Caldwell County and established Far West. This later settlement was a response to the continuing difficulties of finding a secure place in Missouri, not a return to Jackson County: most of those driven out in 1833 never went back.