The American West - Mormons.

Joseph Smith - 1823-31

Joseph Smith was the son of a poor farmer from Vermont, when he claimed he had found two gold plates. He claimed an angel named Moroni had led him the way, and helped him decipher the strange text on it, that said whoever found the plates would bring back the church of Jesus Christ to the USA, and now, Joseph Smith was the man to do it.

At first he only had a few followers (five), but by 1830, he had several hundred people joining his Church. Mormons had many rules and religious beliefs, just like Christianity, for example, Mormons believed in polygamy, which meant that a man could have several wives.

The Christians and non-Mormons believed the Mormons to be blasphemous, and frauds, and attacked Joseph Smiths house, and shot Mormons in the street. After praying for guidance, Joseph Smith led the Mormons to Ohio, where they were then chased out of there too. They were chased out, because, the Mormons grew very successful, buying land and building farms and homes on it. They also opened up a store, a temple, a mill, and a printing press. They also began to outnumber non Mormons, and as they became successful, they set up a bank, which non-Mormons put their money into. Non-Mormons became very jealous of the Mormons success, and were afraid of being outnumbered by them, got very angry when they lost all of their savings in the national bank crisis, where their bank went bust, drove the Mormons out of Ohio.  A similar thing happened in Missouri, and Illinois. In Missouri, the Mormons became very friendly with the Plains Indians, and wanted to free slaves too. They also set up a secret police force called the…