Parley P. Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 1839
Source Note
, History of the Late Persecution Inflicted by the State of Missouri upon the Mormons, in Which Ten Thousand American Citizens were Robbed, Plundered, and Driven from the State, and Many Others Imprisoned, Martyred, &c. for Their Religion, and All This By Military Force, By Order of the Executive; i–vi, 7–84 pp.; Detroit, MI: Dawson & Bates, 1839. The copy used for this transcription is held at CHL.
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 state.” (JS et al., Liberty, MO, to the church members and Edward Partridge, Quincy, IL, 20 Mar. 1839, in Revelations Collection, CHL [D&C 123:1, 6].) 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 Illinois 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 beginning in 1838. In April and June 1840, the fifth and seventh installments reprinted passages from ’s History of the Late Persecution Inflicted by the State of Missouri upon the Mormons (Detroit: Dawson and Bates 1839). The sixth and eighth through tenth installments drew upon ’s pamphlet, An Appeal to the American People. The series concluded with an eleventh installment in October 1840, featuring Missouri militia general ’s callous speech to the Saints after their surrender at , Missouri, in November 1838.
wrote History of the Late Persecution, the document featured here, during his eight-month imprisonment in jails in 1838–1839. His wife, , daringly smuggled the manuscript out of the jail. After his escape on 4 July 1839 and reunion with the Saints in , Pratt left on a mission to England with the Twelve Apostles. When he reached he paused to visit relatives and arranged for the publication of his history there, obtaining a copyright for his book on 30 September 1839. Revised versions were subsequently reprinted in in 1840 as a pamphlet under the same title and as an expanded hardback with the title Late Persecution of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints. (Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 89–90, 100–103.) Pratt later drew upon his history when he composed his autobiography in the 1850s.
’s History of the Late Persecution provides an autobiographical account of events in , , , and counties, Missouri, beginning in 1833. Some of the material describing events that transpired in Jackson County in 1833 was drawn from an earlier publication Pratt co-authored with and , “‘The Mormons’ So Called.” History of the Late Persecution also rehearses the conflict that engulfed Caldwell and Daviess counties, the expulsion of the Saints from Missouri, the mistreatment of Mormon prisoners by Missouri authorities, and the smuggling of Pratt’s manuscript copy of the History from jail, concluding with his narrow escape from imprisonment in Columbia, Missouri.
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ed about a half a mile from our prison; he was an excellent shoemaker, and a true disciple, but secretly for fear of the people. This man was our friend, and was formerly from . I wished my to go there and carry my shoes to be mended, which would be a good excuse for going unsuspitioned by our jealous guards, and at the same time leave the manuscript there. Therefore I wrote as above, “let the truth remain with the people of .” This was done.
Thus kind reader, was this little book providentially, and I may say, miraculously preserved, and by this means you have it to read. If it had not been for all these unforseen accidents or providences, the world would never have read this account of awful persecutions, and terrible scenes through which myself and family, and fellow Saints have been called to pass. The writings would have been consumed to ashes. But, “truth is mighty, and will prevail.” The horrid deeds of murder and injustice will come to light. Iniquity cannot be hid.
Is it possible! have I been recording the history of realities as the scenes transpired in the broad light of the nineteenth century, and in the boasted land of Liberty—in the midst of the most renowned now existing on the Globe? Alas! it is too true. Would to God it were a dream. Would to God it were a novel, a romance, that had no existence, save in the wild regions of fancy. But the prison door yet grating on its huge hinges, and the absence of my beloved , and our little babes, with the gloom of the dungeon where I yet repose; these and ten thousand other things, cause me to think that my almost incredible narrative is no fiction but an awful reality. A fact more truely distressing than my feeble pen can find worlds to set forth. How oft in my sleeping visions I see my beloved wife, or my playful children, surrounded with the pleasures of home in my sweet little cottage, or walk with them in some pleasant grove or flowery field as in the years past. How oft I see myself surrounded with listening thousands, as in by gone years, and join with them in the sacred song [p. 68]