Mormon Handcart Pioneers - Background To The Migration

Background To The Migration

For more details on this topic, see Mormon pioneer.

The Latter Day Saints were first organized as the Church of Christ in 1830. Early members of the Church often encountered hostility, primarily due to their practice of withdrawing from secular society and gathering in locales to practice their distinct religious beliefs. Their neighbors felt threatened by the Church's rapid growth in numbers, by its tendency to vote as a bloc and acquire political power, by its claims of divine favor, and, later, by the practice of polygamy. Violence directed against the Church and its members caused the body of the Church to move from Ohio to Missouri, then to Illinois. Despite the frequent moves, Church members were unable to escape opposition, which culminated in the extermination order against all Mormons living in the state by Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs and the martyr of its leader Joseph Smith in 1844. Brigham Young, Smith's successor as Church leader, said that he had received divine direction to organize the church members and head beyond the western frontier of the United States.