[], An Appeal to the American People: Being an Account of the Persecutions of the Church of Latter Day Saints; and of the Barbarities Inflicted on Them by the Inhabitants of the State of Missouri; 1–84 pp.; Cincinnati, OH: Glezen and Shepard, stereotypers and printers, 1840. The copy used herein is held at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Historical Introduction
While incarcerated at , Missouri, in March 1839, JS addressed a letter to the church “at Illinois and scattered abroad and to in particular,” instructing the Saints to gather up “a knoledge of all the facts and sufferings and abuses put upon them by the people of this .” Edward Partridge responded with an account that became the three opening installments of “A History, of the Persecution, of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints in Missouri,” an eleven-part series published in the church’s newspaper, Times and Seasons, between December 1839 and October 1840. “A History, of the Persecution” receives comprehensive treatment in volume 2 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers and is available on this website.
may have intended to tell the entire story himself, but he fell ill shortly after publication of “A History, of the Persecution” began and died on 27 May 1840. Prompted by Partridge’s illness and subsequent death, the editors of the Times and Seasons, and , sought elsewhere for source materials to continue the series. It is probable that they composed the fourth installment to provide a brief transition from Partridge’s account, which ends in 1836, and the conflicts in and adjoining counties in 1838. The fifth and seventh installments reprinted passages from ’s History of the Late Persecutions Inflicted by the State of Missouri upon the Mormons (Detroit: Dawson and Bates, 1839). In May 1840, the sixth installment reprinted passages from ’s eighty-four page pamphlet, An Appeal to the American People: Being an Account of the Persecutions of the Church of Latter Day Saints; and of the Barbarities Inflicted on Them by the Inhabitants of the State of Missouri (Cincinnati: Glezan and Shepard, 1840). More of Rigdon’s work was reprinted in the eighth through tenth installments, published from July to September 1840. The series concluded with an eleventh installment in the October 1840 issue, featuring General ’s callous speech to the Saints after their surrender at , Missouri, in November 1838.
A manuscript version of ’s Appeal to the American People, referred to as the “petition draft” titled “To the Publick” and endorsed by JS, Rigdon, and , was read to a conference of Saints in , Illinois, on 1 November 1839. The conference voted to approve its publication in the name of the church. and then collaborated to arrange for publication of the text in late 1839 and early 1840. Though no author is named on the title page, Rigdon was acknowledged as author when the pamphlet was advertised in the Times and Seasons in 1840 and 1841. JS and Elias Higbee had some expectation that funds from the sale of the publication would help defray costs of their trip to in late 1839. In July 1840, a second edition was printed by Shepard & Stearns in to raise funds for Orson Hyde and ’s mission to .
Although many of the events reported in ’s pamphlet can be corroborated from other sources, his chronology is often inaccurate. (Consult the annotation in Histories, Volume 2 for correction to portions published as part of “A History, of the Persecutions.”) However, his account contains the text of several significant documents. Among these are JS’s 5 September 1838 affidavit concerning the 7 August 1838 visit to and those of and and regarding the massacre. Consequently, though in many respects Rigdon’s document is more advocacy than history, it offers access to some material not readily found elsewhere.
It commenced raining and freezing most violently; in this deplorable condition, some of them took shelter under some rocks, and the remainder of them, both small and great, had to lie out in the open prairie, with nothing but the heavens to cover them, while the storm beat upon them with great fury. Among the number, was a Mrs. Higbee, wife of John S. Higbee, from , who was very sick with a fever, and also had an infant at the breast. She was under the necessity of spending this night of storm, exposed to all its violence, having nothing but the earth to sleep on. After spending the night in this distressed situation, early in the morning, another Mrs. [Keziah String] Higbee, the wife of , was delivered of a babe, without any bed but the earth, or covering but the heavens.
There were many sick, who were thus inhumanly driven from their houses and had to endure all this abuse and suffering and seek homes where they could be found. The result was, that a number being deprived of the comforts of life, and the necessary attendance, died; many children were left orphans; wives, widows; and husbands widowers.
The mob, after thus abusing the people; the hundredth part of which is not told here; took possession of the farms of those whom they had thus driven from their homes, and all their cattle, horses, sheep and hogs; which amounted to many thousands; together with all their household stuff of every kind, amounting to many thousand dollars worth; and have forbid, under pain of death, any of them returning to get any of their property; and if any of them did attempt it and were discovered, they were whipped and otherwise abused: one or two who did attempt it, were nearly killed—they escaped with their lives, and no more!
There were in addition to the flocks and the herds which the mob took from the saints, large fields of corn, to the amount of many hundred acres; I might say thousands, all ready to harvest; which they took as their own. There were also many hundred acres of wheat, which had been sown, that they also took possession of; and keep them all to this day. After they had plundered the houses, [p. 11]