Map: Forced Migrations

A Perfect Theocracy
Nauvoo, Illinois
1839-1846

"Far from the Promised Land, it's swampland. There's mosquitoes everywhere, malaria outbreaks..."
-- Ken Verdoia, journalist

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About this Place
In the 1803s, land speculators invest in a Mississippi riverbank area they call Commerce. The marshy swamp, plagued by malaria, fails to attract any permanent settlers. When the Mormons arrive in 1839, on a wave of sympathy following the Haun's Mill massacre, only a few lone cabins remain. Smith purchases 15,000 acres and names the settlement Nauvoo. Free from the hostile persecution that dogged them in Missouri, Smith and his followers begin building a communal society.

Mormon Developments
Joseph Smith writes Nauvoo's city charter and is elected mayor. By 1844, the dynamic settlement's population has grown to 12,000, rivaling the size of Chicago. Smith has himself appointed chief justice of the city court and lieutenant general of a Nauvoo militia, merging church and state in a thriving theocracy, where Mormons wield political and military might.

Smith receives two key revelations in Nauvoo: the baptism of the dead, and plural marriage, which will be controversial from the start and a flashpoint for anti-Mormonism for decades to come.

Why They Left
In early June 1844, the first -- and only -- issue of The Nauvoo Expositor appears. Published by a Mormon opposed to plural marriage, the newspaper exposes Joseph Smith's secret practice of polygamy.

An enraged Smith orders the destruction of the newspaper's press, antagonizing the public with his assault on a basic American freedom. Smith is charged with treason and arrested. An angry mob storms the Carthage, Illinois jail where Smith is being held. During the attack, Smith falls from the second floor window and is killed.

Illinois authorities revoke Nauvoo's city charter and ask the Mormon community to leave. In February 1845, emerging church head Brigham Young leads thousands of Saints out of Illinois, heading west to Mexican territory.