In October 1838 armed vigilantes killed ten, and fatally injured seven, Latter-day Saints near the Hawn’s Mill settlement in Missouri; they also reportedly looted houses, wagons, and tents and stole clothing from both survivors and the deceased. In Far West, Missouri, state militiamen ransacked church members’ homes and robbed them of personal property. Various accounts also indicate that multiple Latter-day Saint women were the victims of acts of sexual violence, including rape. (Greene, Facts relative to the Expulsion, 23–24; David Lewis, Affidavit, in Sidney Rigdon et al., “To the Publick,” ca. Sept. 1838–Oct. 1839, draft, JS Collection, CHL; Baugh, “Call to Arms,” 359–368, 424–426; Amanda Barnes Smith, Statement, 18 Apr. 1839, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL; American Anti-slavery Society, American Slavery as It Is, 191–192; Murdock, Journal, 29 Oct. 1838, 103–104; Hyrum Smith, Testimony, Nauvoo, IL, 1 July 1843, pp. 13, 24, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; see also “Part 3: 4 November 1838–16 April 1839.”)

Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.

Baugh, Alexander L. “A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1996. Also available as A Call to Arms: The 1838 Mormon Defense of Northern Missouri, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000).

Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.

American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses. New York: American Anti- Slavery Society, 1839.

Murdock, John. Journal, ca. 1830–1859. John Murdock, Journal and Autobiography, ca. 1830–1867. CHL. MS 1194, fd. 2.

Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.

See Exodus 20:18.

See Genesis 4:10; Revelation 6:10; and Book of Mormon, 1840 ed., 111, 320 [2 Nephi 28:10; Alma 37:30]. Bennett’s rhetoric echoes sentiments contained in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, as well as in the writings of Parley P. Pratt. Speaking of the violent acts committed against the Latter-day Saints in Missouri, Pratt wrote in 1839: “The spirits of the ancient martyrs will hail their brethren of the Church of latter-day Saints, as greater sufferers than themselves, and the blood of ancient and modern Saints, will mingle together in cries for vengeance.” (Pratt, History of the Late Persecution, 56.)

See 1 Kings 18:24; and Daniel 11:33.

In Greek and Roman mythology, the Lernaean Hydra was a multiheaded water serpent that was killed by Hercules. Slavery was often characterized as a hydra-headed monster in abolitionist literature. (“Hydra,” in American Dictionary [1841], 849; “The Cause in Ohio,” Liberator [Boston], 16 May 1835, 77; “Remarks of James C. Jackson,” Liberator, 12 Mar. 1841, 41.)

An American Dictionary of the English Language; First Edition in Octavo, Containing the Whole Vocabulary of the Quarto, with Corrections, Improvements and Several Thousand Additional Words. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. 2nd ed. 2 vols. New Haven: By the author, 1841.

Liberator. Boston. 1831–1865.

Originally a term used by the Scottish to refer to those in England, southron was appropriated by nineteenth-century Americans to refer to the inhabitants of the South. (“Southron,” in Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 410; see also, for example, Freeman, Yaradee, 82.)

Bartlett, John Russell. Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases, Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States. New York: Bartlett and Welford, 1848.

Freeman, Frederick. Yaradee; A Plea for Africa, in Familiar Conversations on the Subject of Slavery and Colonization. Philadelphia: J. Whetham, 1836.

This is likely a reference to three Illinois abolitionists—James Burr, George Thompson, and Alanson Work—who were arrested in Missouri for attempting to help black slaves escape to Canada. In September 1841 the men were convicted and eventually sentenced to twelve years in a Missouri prison. (Thompson, Prison Life and Reflections, 17–23, 81, 85–90.)

Thompson, George. Prison Life and Reflections; or, A Narrative of the Arrest, Trial, Conviction, Imprisonment, Treatment, Observations, Reflections, and Deliverance of Work, Burr and Thompson, Who Suffered an Unjust and Cruel Imprisonment in Missouri Penitentiary, for Attempting to Aid Some Slaves to Liberty. Oberlin, OH: James M. Fitch, 1847.

See Isaiah 61:2; 63:4; see also Revelation, 3 Nov. 1831 [D&C 133:51].

During the 1838 Mormon War, vigilantes reportedly looted houses, wagons, and tents. In January 1840 Illinois senator Richard Young presented to the United States Senate a memorial (prepared by church leaders) seeking redress for the lives and property lost to Missouri vigilantes and members of the Missouri state militia. (Greene, Facts relative to the Expulsion, 24; Amanda Barnes Smith, Statement, 18 Apr. 1839, Historian’s Office, JS History Documents, ca. 1839–1860, CHL; Memorial to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, ca. 30 Oct. 1839–27 Jan. 1840.)

Greene, John P. Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri, under the “Exterminating Order.” By John P. Greene, an Authorized Representative of the Mormons. Cincinnati: R. P. Brooks, 1839.

Historian’s Office. Joseph Smith History Documents, 1839–1860. CHL. CR 100 396.