| dc.description.abstract | "Receptivity to Mormonism in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, 1830-1860" is a case study aimed at illuminating the interconnected relationship of migration, violence, and citizenship in antebellum America. While histories of the Mormons in Illinois and Iowa typically focus on the years 1839-1846, this dissertation begins in 1830, when the first Saints entered Illinois, and ends in 1860, long after the majority of church members left the upper Mississippi River valley for the Great Basin. It examines how Mormons were received in the 1830s, as they crisscrossed the region. In the 1840s, many welcomed Mormon settlement but as Saints flooded into the area, anti-Mormonism developed. Antagonism grew over church members' political power and their tendency to vote as a bloc. Mormons also were perceived as lawbreakers who perverted local justice. Many non-Mormons justified hostility toward church members because they believed the Mormons did not fulfill the obligations of citizenship, which justified the use of extra-legal violence to remove them from the region. In the 1850s, mild anti-Mormonism persisted but once the Saints who stayed behind demonstrated their value as good citizens, they were allowed to live and worship as they pleased, avoiding the same fate as their coreligionists. | |
