Joseph Smith || Featured Biography

Posted by Kronos • Profile • 09/20/26 at 01:00AM • Biographies • See more by Kronos

JOSEPH SMITH (1805–1844) | KUDOS365 HISTORY SERIES

Joseph Smith was an American religious leader and the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, one of the most influential religious traditions to emerge from the United States. To his followers, he was a prophet called by God to restore the original Christian church. To his critics, he was a controversial and often authoritarian figure whose claims, financial ventures, secret plural marriages, and accumulation of political power generated repeated conflict. His brief life reshaped American religion and produced a movement that continued to grow and diversify long after his death.

Smith was born on December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont, to Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. His family experienced recurring financial difficulties and eventually settled near Palmyra, New York. The region was then undergoing intense religious revivalism, with competing churches and traveling preachers seeking converts. Smith later said that this atmosphere left him uncertain about which church, if any, possessed religious truth.

According to the account Smith developed and shared with his followers, he experienced a vision in 1820 in which God and Jesus Christ appeared to him and instructed him not to join the existing churches. He later reported that on September 21, 1823, an angel named Moroni directed him to buried golden plates containing an ancient sacred record. Believers accept these events as divine revelations, while historians generally treat them as religious claims that cannot be independently verified.

In 1827, Smith married Emma Hale, who became an important participant in the early movement. Smith said that he translated the inscriptions on the plates through divine assistance. Scribes, including Emma and Oliver Cowdery, recorded the words he dictated. The resulting text, the Book of Mormon, was published in 1830. It presented an account of ancient peoples in the Americas and described the resurrected Jesus Christ appearing among them. The book became the foundational scripture of the new movement.

On April 6, 1830, Smith and several followers formally organized the Church of Christ, later named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Smith taught that Christianity had fallen into a state of apostasy and that God had authorized him to restore priesthood authority, continuing revelation, and the original church. Converts were drawn to the movement’s confidence, communal purpose, and promise that ordinary people could receive spiritual gifts and participate in sacred history.

Hostility followed the growing church from New York to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Some opposition arose from religious prejudice and fear of an unfamiliar faith. Other conflicts developed over the movement’s concentrated voting power, economic practices, land purchases, and Smith’s expanding religious and civic authority. Latter-day Saints faced harassment, destruction of property, armed attacks, and forced removal.

In Kirtland, Ohio, Smith supervised the construction of the movement’s first temple and introduced new teachings and ceremonies. He also helped establish a financial institution that failed during the economic crisis of 1837. The collapse cost many participants their savings and damaged confidence in his leadership. Dissent increased, and Smith left Ohio for Missouri.

Conflict in Missouri escalated into armed confrontation during 1838. Both Latter-day Saints and their opponents committed acts of violence, though the Saints suffered the greater collective punishment. Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issued an order declaring that the Mormons must be driven from the state or “exterminated.” Smith was imprisoned for several months without being brought to trial before escaping custody in 1839. Thousands of displaced church members sought refuge in Illinois.

There, Smith and his followers established Nauvoo, which rapidly became one of Illinois’s largest communities. Smith served as the city’s mayor, chief judge, church president, and commander of the Nauvoo Legion, a large local militia. These overlapping positions enabled the Saints to defend themselves after years of persecution, but they also alarmed neighbors who believed Smith exercised excessive religious, political, and military power.

Smith’s theology continued to evolve. He introduced baptism on behalf of the dead, temple rituals, an expanded understanding of humanity’s relationship with God, and teachings about eternal families. He also secretly practiced plural marriage and authorized selected followers to do the same. Historical evidence establishes that Smith entered into numerous plural unions, although their precise number and the nature of every relationship remain debated. Some women were already civilly married, and at least one was fourteen years old. Emma Smith’s knowledge and acceptance of these relationships varied, and the practice caused deep personal and institutional conflict. The church publicly denied allegations of polygamy during Smith’s lifetime.

Smith also became increasingly involved in politics. After government officials failed to provide adequate compensation or protection for the Saints’ losses in Missouri, he announced his candidacy for president of the United States in 1844. His platform included a stronger federal role in protecting individual rights, prison reform, territorial expansion, and the gradual end of slavery through compensated emancipation. At the same time, he organized a private governing body known as the Council of Fifty, which reflected his expansive vision of religious and political authority.

The final crisis began when former associates published the Nauvoo Expositor, a newspaper criticizing Smith’s power and exposing plural marriage. Smith and the Nauvoo City Council declared the newspaper a public nuisance and ordered its press destroyed. The action intensified existing opposition and led to charges against Smith. After briefly leaving Nauvoo, he returned and surrendered to authorities. He and his brother Hyrum were held in the jail at Carthage, Illinois, while awaiting legal proceedings.

On June 27, 1844, an armed mob stormed the jail. Smith used a pistol that had been given to him to defend himself, but both brothers were shot and killed. Joseph Smith was thirty-eight years old. His murder was the culmination of years of religious persecution, political conflict, mutual fear, and escalating violence; it was also an unlawful act that denied him the judicial process he was awaiting.

Smith’s death produced a succession crisis that divided the movement. Most followers eventually accepted Brigham Young’s leadership and migrated west to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Other groups followed different leaders, including Smith’s son Joseph Smith III, who later headed the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as Community of Christ.

Joseph Smith remains both revered and disputed. His followers view him as a prophet who restored sacred authority and revealed new scripture. Critics emphasize his secrecy, plural marriages, failed financial ventures, and concentration of power. Whatever judgment is made about his religious claims, his historical importance is unmistakable. From modest beginnings in rural New York, he created a durable religious movement, produced an extensive body of scripture and teachings, founded communities, and altered the course of American religious history.