Episode 72: D&C 115-120

Shiloh and Ben discuss some history of the early Saints’ early persecution that is not often talked about in Sunday school. These sections comprise the period in Missouri after the Saints left Kirtland in 1837 until the Missouri “Extermination Order” in October 1838. While the relationship between the early Saints and the Missourians was not perfect in 1838 it was functional and, some historians argue, had begun to heal and mend since the Jackson County expulsion in 1834 and the Clay County expulsion in 1836. However, relationships between the Saints and their Missouri neighbors took a radical downturn in the summer and fall of 1838 leading to Governor Boggs’ famous Executive Order 44 (the “Extermination Order”) that forced Mormon settlers out of Missouri in late October of 1838. While the legality and judiciousness of this Order was in question even in Boggs’ day among many Missourians it was not signed and administered in a vacuum. While the mass expulsion of an entire community—depriving them of their legally protected natural rights—is unjustifiable, there were many actions performed by the Saints (and the Danite vigilante group) that gave many substantive reasons for the Missourians’ and the Governor’s legitimate concern about the growing population of Mormon settlers in the region.