The first revelations
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith ©
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded by Joseph Smith (left) in New York State in the USA in 1830.
Smith had received a revelation from God, first through an angel, and then through a book inscribed on golden plates.
Smith translated the writing on the plates into the Book of Mormon, which tells the story of the ancient people of America. It was published in 1830.
The Church
The Church was founded in 1830 and soon attracted members. From the start it actively tried to convert people and sent missionaries out to win members.
The first church meeting, in a farmhouse in New York State on 6 April 1830 ©
The Church also attracted enemies and was persecuted by mainstream Christian church members. Smith himself was imprisoned more than thirty times for his faith.
In 1836 the first Mormon Temple was dedicated at Kirtland in Ohio.
The City of Nauvoo
The church continued to grow, many of its members being converts from England. But the persecution also continued and eventually the Mormons moved to Illinois, where they built a new city, where they could live and worship in peace, on the banks of the Mississippi.
The death of the prophet
The Mormon hope that they would find peace at Nauvoo was disappointed and the persecution continued.
Joseph Smith was arrested on several occasions, and in 1844 a jail where he and his brother was being held was attacked by an armed mob, and both men were shot and killed.