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Pregunta: ¿Los documentos contemporáneos arrojan alguna luz sobre la posible persecución de la familia Smith después de la Primera Visión de José Smith?
Pregunta: ¿Los documentos contemporáneos arrojan alguna luz sobre la posible persecución de la familia Smith después de la Primera Visión de José Smith?
Contemporary newspaper articles report an episode that likely provides some window into the persecution which the Smiths endured
Milton Backman recounts the events surrounding the death of Alvin, Joseph's elder brother:
After the death of Joseph's brother, Alvin, who died November 19, 1823, someone circulated the rumor that Alvin's body had been "removed from the place of his interment and dissected." In an attempt to ascertain the truth of this report, Joseph Smith, Sr., along with neighbors gathered at the grave, removed the earth, and found the body undisturbed. To correct the fabrication, designed in the opinion of Joseph's father to injure the reputation of the Smith family, Joseph, Sr., placed in the Wayne Sentinel (which appeared on successive Wednesdays from September 30 to November 3, 1824) a public notice reciting his findings that the body was undisturbed. [1]
This kind of malicious gossip and rumor is cruel, but is also not the sort of thing likely to leave much trace on the historical record, save in memories. But, if the Smith family could be the subject of malicious gossip when faced with a tragedy like Alvin's death, can we really expect that things before then were much better?