The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother by Lucy Mack Smith

He charged us not to mention what he told us out of the family, as the world was so wicked that when they did come to a knowledge of these things, they would try to take our lives, and as soon as we obtained the plates our names would be cast out as evil by all people. began to explain to us the instructions which he had received. 4 Lucy records that, after telling his family about the angel, Joseph gathered his family for “recitals” of what he had learned from the angel.

3Īt one point in her history, Lucy tells how Joseph was visited by an angel who told him of “a record” that would “bring forth that light and intelligence which ha been long lost to the earth.” This record (described as “plates”) was said by the angel to be resting “on a side hill on the Hill of Cumorah 3 miles from” the Smith family farm. and many other thing which Joseph never wrote or published.” 2 The resulting history has proven to be valuable to historians, and “next to Joseph Smith’s history, the Lucy Mack Smith history” is one of the most widely utilized sources for reconstructing the early life of the Prophet and the events tied to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Towards the end of her life, and not long after the deaths of her sons Joseph, Hyrum, and Samuel in 1844, Lucy, “perhaps in part as a salve to her grief,” and at the behest of the Quorum of the Twelve, “began recording her family’s story.” 1 According to Lucy, one reason for her history was to provide the “particulars of Joseph’s getting the plates, seeing the angels. Lucy Mack Smith (1775–1856), mother of the Prophet Joseph Smith, was a committed believer in her son’s divine calling.

The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother by Lucy Mack Smith