Book of Mormon/Geography/Statements/Nineteenth century/Joseph Smith's lifetime 1829-1840

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This article is a draft. FairMormon editors are currently editing it. We welcome your suggestions on improving the content.

See also: Statements made by or attributed to Joseph Smith

Nineteenth Century: Statements during Joseph Smith's lifetime: Part I—1829–1840

November 1830: Account of LDS missionary preaching

This new Revelation [the Book of Mormon], they say is especially designed for the benefit, or rather for the christianizing [sic] of the Aborigines of America; who, as they affirm, are a part of the tribe of Manasseh, and whose ancestors landed on the coast of Chili [sic] 600 years before the coming of Christ, and from them descended all the Indians of America.[1]

Feb 1833: (Evening and Morning Star) Ruins in Central America "good testimony in favor of the Book of Mormon"

In an article titled “Discovery of Ancient Ruins in Central America,” there is a reprint of a story describing Guatemalan ruins at Péten. The editor of the paper, W. W. Phelps, said of the ruins that

We are glad to see the proof begin to come, of the original or ancient inhabitants of this continent. It is good testimony in favor of the book of Mormon, and the book of Mormon is good testimony that such things as cities and civilization, ‘prior to the fourteenth century,’ existed in America....
In addition to the above, Nephi relates what took place at the crucifixion of the Lord, and should ruins of many cities be discovered, it would be no more than a confirmation of what was once on this land of the Lord. The account of the great destruction at the crucifixion, is confirmed by the appearance of the face of the land now, and the cracks or common seams in the rocks....[2]

Note that Phelps describes all of the Americas as "this land," since he anticipates that finding more ruined cities in Central America would bear testimony of the crucifixion-era destruction.

2 Feb 1833: American Revivalist

The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians… By it, we learn that our western tribes of Indians, are descendants from that Joseph that was sold into Egypt, and that the land of America is a promised land unto them.[3]

March 1833: Evening and the Morning Star

Appeals to the Book of Mormon to demonstrate that:

The continent of America is a choice land above all others, and, ever since men have dwelt upon it, if they were virtuous, and walked uprightly before the Lord, they have been blessed: When they have not done so, they have been visited with calamities....[4]

June 1833: Evening and the Morning Star

Buildings in North Carolina and a stone artifact found in Cincinnati are offered as evidence that:

NO people that have lived on this continent, since the flood, understood many of the arts and sciences, better that the Jaredites and Nephites, whose brief history is sketched in the book of Mormon. The facts following, from the Star in the West, is not only proof of their skill, but it is good proof, to those that want evidence, that the book of Mormon, IS TRUE.[5]

June 1833: Evening and the Morning Star

Buildings in North Carolina and a stone artifact found in Cincinnati are offered as evidence that:

In the fourth thousand years, the ten tribes of Israel were led away captive out of the land of Canaan, and taken to a place by the hand of the Lord that has not yet been discovered by the Gentiles; the Jaredites were destroyed because of their wickedness; Lehi was guided by the matchless power of God to this continent....
In the sixth thousand years, America, the land of liberty, choice above all others, was settled by the Gentiles; the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ came forth in the book of Mormon, the church established, and the gathering of the saints, commenced, preparatory to the second coming of their Lord....[6]

3 June 1834: (Zion's Camp) The story of Zelph

Main article: Zelph

4 June 1834: (Zion's Camp) Joseph Smith writes that Illinois is the "plains of the Nephites"

The following is taken from a letter written by Joseph Smith to his wife Emma during the trek known as "Zion's Camp".

The whole of our journey, in the midst of so large a company of social honest and sincere men, wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls & their bones, as a proof of its divine authenticity, and gazing upon a country the fertility, the splendour and the goodness so indescribable, all serves to pass away time unnoticed.[7]

February 1835: W.W. Phelps to Oliver Cowdery in Messenger and Advocate

The first one is where you sat day after day and wrote the history of the second race that inhabited this continent, as the words were repeated to you by the Lord’s prophet, through the aid of the “Urim and Thumim,” “Nephite Interpreters,” or Divine Spectacles. I mean when you wrote the book of Mormon, containing the fulness of the gospel to the world, and the covenant to gather Israel, for the last time, as well as the history of the Indians, who, till then, had neither origin among men, not records amid the light and knowledge of the great 19th century. [8]

July 1835: Oliver Cowdery to W.W. Phelps in Messenger and Advocate

A history of the inhabitants who peopled this continent, previous to its being discovered to Europians by Columbus, must be interesting to every man; and as it would develope the important fact, that the present race were descendants of Abraham....[9]

Note that "this continent" refers to both North and South America; Columbus never set foot in the present day United States; he was confined to the the Caribbean, South America and Central America. (Click here for maps of Columbus' voyages.)

October 1835: W.W. Phelps to Oliver Cowdery in Messenger and Advocate

My last letter was mainly confined to the book of Mormon, which rarely fails to bring to my mind something about the Indians, whose history and doings, upon this western continent, it unfolds as plainly, as the bible does those of the Israelites on the eastern continent....
When I read the book of Mormon and reflect upon the mercy and goodness of God, in sparing some of the seed of Joseph upon this choice land of America: and consider his wisdom and love in preserving a record of the progenitors or fathers of this now smitten and dejected people, I cannot find the requisite terms to convey my thanks to such an all wise Being!...
[there are] “thirty tribes, containing a population of 156,310, have held treaties with the United States, and that there is an Indian population east of the Mississippi, of 92,676,”—making a total of 405,286. Now allowing the same number west of the Mountains, and suppose 800,000, in the northern regions of the Canadas, and 500,000 in South America, there will be 2,110,562 of the sons of Joseph, and of the remnants of the Jews. A goodly number to be willing in the day of the Lord’s power, to help build up the waste places of Zion. A blessed band to be restored to mercy and enjoy the chief things of ancient mountains; even the deep things that couch beneath.[10]

Consistent with contemporary usage, Phelps considers "this western continent" (i.e., North and South America) to be the parallel of the Jews' "eastern continent (i.e., Eurasia), which he labels "America." Phelps regards all peoples of the hemisphere as descendants of Lehi.

January 1836: W.W. Phelps in Messenger and Advocate

The book of Mormon has made known who Israel is, upon this continent, and while we behold the government of the United States gathering the Indians and locating them upon lands to be their own, how sweet it is to think that, they may one day, be gathered by the gospel....[11]

January 1837: William Smith in Messenger and Advocate

Now, the beauty of this simile or figure can only be discovered by those who take the pains to contrast it with the literal fact as it occurred; the relation of which may be found in the book of Mormon, first book of Nephi, where a remnant of the branches or seed of Joseph are represented as crossing the sea, and settling this continent of North and South America. Yes, the concurrence or identity of the prophetic allusion, with the fact as set forth in the book of Mormon, demonstrates the truth of the latter as fully as the works and character of Jesus did the declarations of Moses and the prophets relative to himself. Having now, by unimpeachable bible testimony, and as we believe, sound logical reasoning, followed the remnants of Joseph to their landing upon this continent, our next business must be to inquire whether their history and location, if capable of speaking, would emphatically pronounce them “a multitude of nations in the midst of the earth.” So much of the history of the aborigines of America is known to the world, as would render any attempt to show that they have not been, and are not even still “a multitude of nations,” [434] perfectly vain and futile. Such was ostensibly the fact at the first settlement of the country by Europeans, and must, according to all human calculations, have existed to a greater extent previous to that time, from the well known coincidence that no social compact, existed among the different tribes, by which their national individuality could be perpetuated; and from a succession of intestine wars to which they were peculiarly addicted, they must have been diminished and commingled with other clans. As to their location, we leave it for the learned to say whether they actually occupy those degrees of latitude which with propriety may be said to comprehend “the midst of the earth.” (italics in original) (emphasis added) [12]

William regards the various Amerindian groups of North and South America has descendants of Joseph.

July 19, 1840: Joseph teaches that the Land of Zion consists of North and South America

...speaking of the Land of Zion, It consists of all N[orth] & S[outh] America but that any place where the Saints gather is Zion which every righteous man will build up for a place of safety for his children...The redemption of Zion is the redemption of all N[orth] & S[outh] America." (emphasis added) [13]

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Notes (click to expand)
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  1. [note]  A.S., “The Golden Bible, or, Campbellism Improved,” Observer and Telegraph. Religious, Political, and Literary, Hudson, Ohio (18 November 1830): 3. off-site
  2. [note] Dean C. Jessee, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, [original edition] (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1984). ISBN 0877479747. GL direct link
  3. [note]  [W. W. Phelps], "Discovery of Ancient Ruins in Central America," Evening and Morning Star 1 no. 9 (February, 1833), [71]. off-siteGospeLink off-site
  4. [note] [Communication from Joseph Smith, Jr.,] “Mormonism,” The American Revivalist and Rochester Observer (Rochester, New York) 7, no. 6 (2 February 1833). off-site]
    Only the last two paragraphs of Joseph’s letter to the newspaper were printed. The entire letter appeared eleven years later in the November 15, 1844 issue of the Times and Seasons.
  5. [note]  "The Times," Evening and Morning Star 1 (March 1833), [76–77]. off-siteGospeLink off-site
  6. [note]  Evening and Morning Star 2 no. 13 (June 1833), 99. off-siteGospeLink off-site
  7. [note]  "Great Events," Evening and Morning Star 2 no. 13 (June 1833), 102. off-siteGospeLink off-site
  8. [note]  W. W. Phelps to Oliver Cowdery, Christmas 1834, "Letter No. 4," Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 1 no. 5 (February 1835), 65-67. off-site
  9. [note]  Oliver Cowdery to W. W. Phelps, "Letter VII," Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 1 no. 10 (July 1835), 155–59. off-site
  10. [note]  W. W. Phelps to Oliver Cowdery, "Letter No. 11," Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 2 no. 1 (October 1835), 193–95. (emphasis added) off-site
  11. [note]  W.W. Phelps, "The Indians," Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 2 no. 2 (January 1836), 245–48. off-site
  12. [note]  William Smith, "Evidences of the Book of Mormon," Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 3 no. 4 (January 1837), 433–35. off-site
  13. [note] Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, [edited by Dean C. Jessee], "Joseph Smith's July 19, 1840 Discourse," Brigham Young University Studies 19 no. 3 (Spring 1979), 392.
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