Documents, Volume 6
covers 1838 to 1839.
This is the period of what
scholars call the Mormon
War, an outbreak of violence
between the Latter-day Saints
and their opponents in
northwestern Missouri.
This is the time of the Hawn's
Mill massacre, Governor Lilburn
W. Boggs's infamous
extermination
order, and the expulsion
of the Latter-day
Saints from Missouri.
The Prophet Joseph spent
the winter of 1838 to 1839
confined in the dungeon
of the Clay County jail
in Liberty, Missouri.
During this dark time,
the Prophet Joseph
relied on letters to
maintain family ties
and to sustain the Church.
Documents, Volume 6
includes five letters
that Joseph wrote with his
own hand to his wife Emma,
expressing love and concern
for her and their children.
The volume also
reproduces the full text
of three general epistles that
the Prophet sent to the Church,
offering guidance and
counsel as well as recording
his reflections on the
deeper significance
of their suffering in Missouri.
These epistles
incorporated revelations
that the Prophet had received in
the dungeon, in which the Lord
promised him and the Church
that their suffering would
be temporary and
that Zion, which
they had been trying so
hard to build in Missouri,
would ultimately be built.
These revelations
were later canonized
in Doctrine and Covenants
sections 121 to 123.
In April of 1839,
the Prophet was
removed from the
dungeon of the jail
and transported to a different
county to stand trial.
While he was traveling,
he was allowed to escape,
and he rejoined the
Saints in Illinois.
These letters and
experiences of the Prophet
can be found in
Documents, Volume 6.
