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May 2022 Vol. 59 No. 9

This is a sociological and political analysis of the struggle between members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the old settlers in Hancock County, IL. The conflict led to the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage, IL, on June 27, 1844, and the violent expulsion of the Saints between February and the fall of 1846. After their expulsion from Missouri in 1838–39, the Mormons settled in Nauvoo, IL. By 1841, Thomas Sharp, editor and publisher of the Warsaw Signal, began a concerted anti-Mormon attack on the Saints. Thomas Gregg and others joined him in an anti-Mormon movement that attracted old settlers in Hancock and surrounding counties. The old settlers considered the struggle political. The Mormons viewed it as religious intolerance. Unfortunately, Simeone (Illinois Wesleyan Univ.) agrees with the anti-Mormons largely because the Mormons chose to live as a community under Smith’s prophetic leadership and use the law to their advantage rather than follow the old settlers’ customs. He considers Governor Thomas Ford a hero even though he failed to protect the Saints from the anti-Mormons and facilitated their expulsion under violent attacks.

--T. G. Alexander, emeritus, Brigham Young University

Summing Up: Recommended. With reservations. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.