Testimony Against Joseph Smith
Yesterday the Joseph Smith Web Site’s daily history column, “On This Day…” noted:
November 13, 1838
Richmond, Missouri. Over 40 witnesses appeared at court and bore false witness against the Prophet.
Just before I saw that LDS history note, I had been reading some of these same testimonies that I came across in The Missouri Mormon War section of the Missouri State Archives. The Mormon War Papers, 1837-1841 contains (among other things) evidence given in the 1838 trial of Joseph Smith. Documents containing the testimonies of seventeen witnesses are online for viewing/reading; documents detailing the testimonies of thirty others are not available, but the general content of each testimony is synopsized in the list.
Of the people who testified, some were Mormons, some were Mormon dissenters, and some were non-Mormon citizens living in the area. These documents make for interesting reading (for those interested in history). I’ve pulled out a few paragraphs from some of the available testimonies and offer them below for Mormon Coffee readers’ perusal.
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