Documents, Volume 13 was edited by Christian K. Heimburger, Jeffrey D. Mahas, Brent M. Rogers, J. Chase Kirkham, Matthew S. McBride, and Mason K. Allred. Visit josephsmithpapers.org for more information.

The Joseph Smith Papers Project recently released the thirteenth volume of their Documents series, which covers the relatively short period of August-December 1843. It comprises ninety-eight documents, transcriptions, contextualization, and footnoting that “chronicle a busy, often tumultuous period of [Joseph Smith’s] life” (xix). Helpfully, they show a religious leader, politician, businessman, and family man managing many concerns while acting primarily in his prophetic ministry. As with other volumes, D13 shows the workings of a man who saw no distance between the sacred and the profane. This collapsing of boundaries was evident, too, in his personal life. Even as he escaped the Missouri courts, he could not escape difficulties in home life or pressure in his religious ministry.

Scholars who study Mormonism will be particularly interested in Joseph Smith’s sermons, private instruction, and the development of sacred religious rituals during late 1843. For instance, in August 1843, Joseph Smith taught for the first time that parents could be sealed to their children by entering into sacred rites conducted under the authority of the Latter-day Saint priesthood. Smith also introduced the Second Anointing in September 1843 (xxxii). The development of plural marriage’s underlying logic and practices also continued in this period, including Joseph Smith’s (likely) final two sealings while he was alive. In summary, these rituals were a significant development in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Restoration branches—given their introduction while the temple was being built—provide a worldview into the process of Joseph Smith’s religious innovation. Joseph Smith was a builder, assimilator, and innovator in religion—it seems that the construction of the Nauvoo temple spurred his religious and ritual imagination.

Scholars interested in Joseph Smith, Emma Hale Smith, the Relief Society, and their negotiation of plural marriage will find important information in D13. In particular, I think that scholars will find value in how Joseph Smith did his best to push back against rumors and innuendo regarding plural marriage. For instance, Smith asked Latter-day Saints to “set our women to work & stop th[e]ir spinni[n]g street yarn and talking about spiritual wives” (cited on xxxv). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also began to bring charges against men and women who claimed Joseph Smith authorized them to practice plural marriage. Smith denied this connection and the volume editors say they cannot confirm or deny these instructions. Still, denying actions or relationships often reveals internal concerns about public discourse, private power, and other considerations. In addition to reading the documents in D13 for their content value, scholars would do well to pay attention to the work that words are doing, not just the exact words that are uttered. Smith’s wrangling with the practice and discourse of plural marriage undoubtedly affected his home life–revealing how Joseph Smith’s teaching that the sacred, profane, public, and private spheres could not be disentangled from one another played out in his own life.

These documents are also very useful outside Mormon history as primary sources for political history. As Alex Smith, Ben Park, and Spencer McBride have shown, Smith’s unwillingness to comply with calls back to Missouri through manipulating habeus corpus documents stirred up trouble at home and across Illinois and Missouri. Smith and his followers soon faced the machinations of Thomas Sharp and the “Anti-Mormon Party,” which, as their name suggests, was meant to destroy Mormonism and its political power. Smith had the power of the Nauvoo Legion at his disposal and controlled the courts, ultimately contributing to the climate in which Smith was assassinated. Notably, Smith showed hope in the American experiment even as he amassed and wielded power outside of American democratic norms. He and other Latter-day Saint leaders directed their fellow congregants to appeal to the United States government for redress in Missouri (five years after their expulsion). Smith sought out political allies in Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and other presidential candidates—their lack of helpful responses contributed to his decision to run for the US presidency in 1844.

D13 reveals why the Joseph Smith Papers Project is such a valuable contribution to Mormon/Latter-day Saint history, American religious history, and American history!