... what happened with the Mormons in Missouri and Illinois in the 1830's and 40's is the single worst case of religious persecution in US History. Granted, the Mormon Leadership did a lot of very stupid things,but that does not excuse the mob actions, which bear a scary resembelence to the Pogroms agains the Jews in Russia a few years later.
And, of course, a few years later this caused massive paranoia among the Mormons in Utah, which lead to incidents like The Mountains Meadows Massacre. IMHO although the local LDS officials were very guilty of being involved in it, Brigham Young was not, Young was way to smart then to do something like that.
No event in history can fully be known, but Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley and Glen M. Leonard, is an attempt to present the true picture, and as Walker says: " we left no stone unturned". This was a personal project by the authors, and although Church employees, and given full access to all relevant materials held by the Church, they retained full editorial control and have drawn their own conclusions from the exhaustive body of historical material they assembled.
The early and mid 1850s was the time of the Utah War, when people expected the US Army to enter Utah and either kill the LDS or force them from their homes. It was a time of great anxiety, tension, and attendant rumours among the general populace. We all know from movies of the violence and lawlessness of the American frontiers at this time. LDS members had suffered greatly from this unruly violence, and also from vicious and horrific persecution from those opposed to their religion.
After having been driven so many times from their homes and possessions, violated as they had been by fiends from hell, and now having to endure the unbelievable hardships of relocating to the harsh, freezing isolated wilderness of Mountain Meadow...it was understandable that these pioneer settlers would no longer "turn the other cheek" when the news came to them of this group, who were boasting of the atrocities they intended to commit on the "Mormons" and of their participation in the violence against LDS in both Missouri and Illinois, and that they had participated in the killing of Parley P. Pratt in Arkansas, poisoned a spring, and were threatened to destroy LDS settlements.
The message conveying the will and intent of Brigham Young not to interfere with the immigrants and instructing the Saints to allow the group safe passage did not arrive in time. The isolation, incomplete news of the approaching US Army, and fear of non-Mormons, contributed to paranoia on the part of the Mountain Meadows community. The responsibility for the massacre lies with Southern Paiute Indians and local leaders of settlers in the regions and those acting under their direction. Yes the Indians. who were friends of the LDS, were involved, their precious water and life line had been poisoned by those on which they took vengeance.
I have visited this area many times, and found it bitterly cold, inhospitable, and remote even today, and can imagine the despair of these settlers in those times, who after having endured so much to escape their persecutors now found they had followed them even there.
I hate it when that happens.
