JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. B-1, created 1 Oct. 1843–24 Feb. 1845; handwriting of and ; 297 pages, plus 10 pages of addenda; CHL. This is the second volume of a six-volume manuscript history of the church. This second volume covers the period from 1 Sept. 1834 to 2 Nov. 1838; the subsequent four volumes, labeled C-1 through F-1, continue through 8 Aug. 1844.
Historical Introduction
This document, volume B-1, is the second of the six volumes of the “Manuscript History of the Church.” The collection was compiled over the span of seventeen years, 1838 to 1856. The narrative in volume B-1 begins with the entry for 1 September 1834, just after the conclusion of the Camp of Israel (later called Zion’s Camp), and continues to 2 November 1838, when JS was interned as a prisoner of war at , Missouri. For a fuller discussion of the entire six-volume work, see the general introduction to the history.
, serving as JS’s “private secretary and historian,” completed the account of JS’s history contained in volume A-1 in August 1843. It covered the period from JS’s birth in 1805 through the aftermath of the Camp of Israel in August 1834. When work resumed on the history on 1 October 1843, Richards started a new volume, eventually designated B-1.
At the time of JS’s death in June 1844, the account had been advanced to 5 August 1838, on page 812 of volume B-1. ’s poor health led to the curtailment of work on B-1 for several months, until 11 December 1844. On that date, Richards and , assisted by , resumed gathering the records and reports needed to draft the history. Richards then composed and drafted roughed-out notes while Thomas Bullock compiled the text of the history and inscribed it in B-1. They completed their work on the volume on or about 24 February 1845. Richards, , and Jonathan Grimshaw later added ten pages of “Addenda,” which provided notes, extensive revisions, or additional text to be inserted in the original manuscript where indicated.
Though JS did not dictate or revise any of the text recorded in B-1, and chose to maintain the first-person, chronological narrative format established in A-1 as if JS were the author. They drew from a variety of primary and secondary sources including JS’s diaries and letters, minutes of meetings, the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, church and other periodicals, reports of JS’s discourses, and the reminiscences and recollections of church members. As was the case with A-1, after JS’s death, , , , and others modified and corrected the manuscript as they reviewed material before its eventual publication.
Beginning in March 1842 the church’s Nauvoo periodical, the Times and Seasons, began publishing the narrative as the “History of Joseph Smith.” It was also published in England in the church periodical the Millennial Star beginning in June 1842. Once a press was established in Utah and the Deseret News began publication, the “History of Joseph Smith” once more appeared in print in serialized form. Beginning with the November 1851 issue, the narrative picked up where the Times and Seasons had left off over five years earlier.
The narrative recorded in B-1 continued the story of JS’s life as the prophet and president of the church he labored to establish. The account encompasses significant developments in the church’s two centers at that time—, Ohio, and northwest —during a four-year-span. Critical events included the organization of the Quorums of the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy, the dedication of the House of the Lord in Kirtland, Ohio, the establishment of the Kirtland Safety Society, dissension and apostasy in Kirtland and Missouri, the first mission to England, JS’s flight from Kirtland to Missouri in the winter of 1838, the Saints’ exodus from Kirtland later that year, the disciplining of the Missouri presidency, and the outbreak of the Missouri War and arrest of JS. Thus, B-1 provides substantial detail regarding a significant period of church expansion and transition as well as travail.
thus answering to three measures of meal, undergoing the purifying <November 16.> touch by a revelation of Jesus Christ, and the ministering of angels, who have already commenced this work in the last days, which will answer to the Leaven which leavened the whole lump. Amen.
So I close but shall continue the subject in another number. In the Bonds of the new and everlasting covenant. Joseph Smith Jr.— [HC 2:272]
<x Letter from .> The same day I received a letter from of which the following is a copy:
Dear Sir, Having a few leisure moments, I have at last concluded to do what my own judgment has long dictated would be right, but the allurements of many vices have long retarded the hand that would wield the pen to make inteligent the communication that I wish to send to you; and even now, that ambition which is a prevailing and prediminant principle, among the great mass of natural men, forbids that plainness of sentiment with which I wish to write; for know assuredly, Sir, to you I wish to unbosom my feelings, and unveil the secrets of my heart, as before the Emmeient Judge of all the earth. Be not surprised when I declare unto you, as the Spirit will bear record, that my faith is firm and unshaken in the things of the everlasting gospel; as it is proclaimed by the servants of the Latter Day Saints.
Dear Brother Joseph, (if I may be allowed the expression) when I consider the happy times, and peaceful moments, and pleasant seasons I have enjoyed with you, and this people; contrasted with my now degraded state, together with the high and important station I have held before God; and the abyss into which I have fallen, is a subject that swells my heart too big for utterance, and language is overwhelmed with feelings and looses its power of description; and as I desire to know the will of God concerning me, believing it is my duty to make known unto you my real situation: I shall, therefore, dispassionately proceed to give a true and untarnished relation.
I need not tell you that in former times I have preached the word, and endeavored to be instant in season and out of season, to reprove, rebuke, exhort, and faithfully <to> discharge discharge that trust reposed in me: But oh! with what grief, and lamentable sorrow, and anguish do I have to relate that I have fallen from that princely station, whereunto our God has called me. Reasons why are unnecessary, may the fact suffice; and beleive me when I tell you, that I have sunk myself, (since my last separation from this body,) in crimes of the deepest die; and that I may the better enable you to understand what my real sins are, I will mention (although pride forbids it,) some that I am not guilty of. My hands have not been stained with innocent blood; neither have I lain couched around the cottages of my fellow men, to sieze and carry of[f] the booty; nor have I slandered my neighbor, nor borne false testimony; nor taken unlawful hire; nor oppressed the widow nor the fatherless; neither [p. 651]