This file is copyright of Jens Schriver (c) It originates from the Evil House of Cheat More essays can always be found at: --- http://www.CheatHouse.com --- ... and contact can always be made to: Webmaster@cheathouse.com -------------------------------------------------------------- Essay Name : 1243.txt Uploader : Brendan Crouch Email Address : Language : english Subject : Social Studies Title : Mormons history Grade : A School System : Unami Middle School Country : USA Author Comments : Cool Teacher Comments : Excellent Report Well written Date : 11/12/96 Site found at : My friend -------------------------------------------------------------- Mormons, many things will pop up in your head when this word is mentioned because we all have preconceived ideas about different people and different groups whether we like it or not. One way to live with these fears we have about anyone who is different than us is to try and learn more about these people. In doing so we understand our differences and are able to work and live together. If nothing else this report will inform you and provide a base of knowledge about the Mormons and their difficult path through intolerance and discrimination which has taken them all the way to their current headquarters, Utah. Joseph Smith, a farmers son from upstate New York, founded the new religion in Fayette, NY, in 1830. In 1823 he supposedly had had and was currently having visions of God and other heavenly beings such as the angel Moroni which told him of golden plates, bearing a history of ancient America, hidden on Hill Cumorah, near his father's farm in upstate Manchester, New York. The next day Joseph visited Hill Cumorah and saw the golden plates, but he was not allowed to possess them. He returned to the hill on September 22 in 1824, 1825 and 1826, and each time he viewed the plates, talked with an angel and cameback empty-handed. He was finally allowed to possess these plate and he translated the “Reformed Egyptian” hieroglyphics. Smith's translation of the plates, the Book of Mormon, describes the history, wars, and religious beliefs of a group of people living from 600 BC - AD 421 who migrated from Jerusalem to America. The Book told the story of the Nephites and other Old Testament people who sailed to North America in ancient times. The Nephites lived in a covenant with God, went through epic periods of prosperity and privation, received a missionary visit from Jesus following the Crucifixion, then died to the last Nephite in a war with darker-skinned Americans. The Book of Mormon was published in 1830 and the founding of the church followed it’s publication. Smith attracted a small group of followers who settled in Kirtland, Ohio, and Jackson County, Mo. Because of persecution and intolerance expressed towards the church they moved to northern Missouri and then to Nauvoo, Ill. In 1837 missionaries were sent to England and later to Scandinavia. Although the church prospered in Nauvoo, it faced some difficult times. Neighbors resented Mormons' voting as a bloc and became furious when rumors spread that Smith had secretly introduced polygamy, the practice of having more than one wife or husband, into Mormonism. The people of the area had had enough on June 27, 1844, when an armed mob assassinated Smith, who had been jailed in Carthage, Illinois. Brigham Young, the head of the church's Council of the Twelve Apostles, was voted leader of the church on Aug. 8, 1844. In 1846 he organized and directed the epic march from Nauvoo across the plains and mountains to the Great Salt Basin. Persecution of the Mormons continued, and in the spring of 1847 most of them headed west. The first pioneers were led by Brigham Young and entered the Great Salt Lake valley in July 1847, and other companies arrived soon after. When the Mormons came to Utah, it still belonged to New Mexico. A year later at the conclusion of the Mexican War, it became part of the United States, and in 1849 the Mormons established the State of Deseret (a name from the Book of Mormon meaning “honeybee” and stood for industriousness) and asked for admission to the Union. Congress refused to recognize Deseret, which stretched from Oregon to New Mexico and as far west as the Sierra Nevada, and instead created the Territory of Utah, covering a smaller area, with Brigham Young as governor. Soon conflicts broke out between the Indians, especially the Ute, and the new settlers. Intermittent fighting continued until 1867, when the Ute settled on a reservation. Before long, antagonisms developed between Utah and the federal government, which opposed the Mormon practice of polygamy. During the Utah War in 1857 to 1858, President James Buchanan sent troops to Utah, along with a new governor. During this period of “tension and resentment”, a party of Mormons led by John Doyle Lee attacked a group of non-Mormons traveling through the territory in the so-called Mountain Meadows Massacre in September of 1857. In Utah the church continued to grow but was challenged by the U.S. government because of the acknowledgment of polygamy as a Mormon practice. A war almost developed, but Mormon leaders decided to compromise after occasional fighting occurred. In 1862 and 1882, Congress passed antibigamy laws, and in 1879 the Supreme Court ruled that religious freedom could not be claimed as grounds for the practice of polygamy. In 1890 the Mormons officially ended the practice of polygamy after pressure from the goverment. Not everyone supported Young's election as church leader. The opposing side of the church eventually withdrew to form other Mormon churches, the largest of which is the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, headquartered at Independence, Mo. The Reorganized Church still holds to the idea that leadership appropriately belongs to the direct descendants of Joseph Smith. --------------------------------------------------------------