Session 1

• Brigham Young and the Mormons

  Key issues: why non-Mormons were suspicious of Mormons and why they were persecuted in the East, how the Mormons managed to successfully settle in the West
• Joseph Smith


  Founder of the Mormons
• Joseph Smith's translation of the gold plates

  1. Plates were shown to him by an angel Moroni

  2. Plates were translated by the angel

  3. Only 11 witnesses later allowed to verify their existence

  4. Became the Book of Mormon
• Mormons


  Believed they were chosen to build Zion - God's heavenly city
• Mormons' attempts to build Zion

  1. First tried in Kirtland, Ohio

  2. Driven out when Mormon bank collapsed in 1837

  3. Moved to Missouri, became successful

  4. Worked hard, gave 10% to Mormon Church to buy land

  5. Non-Mormons resented their success, growing numbers, army and secret police, anti-slavery stance

  6. Many Mormons arrested and imprisoned, including Joseph Smith

  7. Brigham Young led Mormons to Illinois
• Mormons in Illinois


  1. Built successful city of Nauvoo with own laws

  2. Non-Mormons felt threatened by their power and disgusted by practice of polygamy

  3. Joseph Smith declared he would stand as presidential candidate

  4. Smith imprisoned for ordering destruction of printing press, shot by mob
• Brigham Young leads Mormons to Salt Lake Valley

  1. Decided to move Mormons across Plains to desolate and unfertile Salt Lake Valley

  2. Journey organised in military style, with rest camps and Winter Quarters built

  3. Despite hardships, Mormons arrived in July 1847
• Brigham Young's actions in Salt Lake Valley

  • No private ownership of land or water, land assigned by need, water collection times allocated
  • Set up supply depots and Perpetual Emigration fund to encourage skilled tradesmen
  • Persuaded railway companies to build through Salt Lake City
• The government would not let the Mormons become an independent state, Young was replaced as Governor in 1857
• Utah became an independent state when they agreed to give up Polygamy in 1890
• Reasons "pushing" farmers from the East to Oregon


  Land becoming scarce, financial crisis in 1837, high taxation, low crop prices, religious and social persecution
• Reasons "pulling" farmers to Oregon


  Plentiful land, stories of fertile soils, government offering cheap land to encourage Manifest Destiny, chance for a new start
• By 1848, nearly 15,000 settlers had gone west
• Preparations for the journey west

  • Needed $1,000, supplies, and a wagon
• Dangers of the journey west

  • Weather
  • Landscape
  • Getting lost
  • Running out of supplies
  • Illness
  • Accidents
  • Childbirth
  • Breaking down
  • Stampedes
  • Indian attacks
• Gold was discovered in California in 1848, leading to a rush of people known as the 49ers
• Ways people travelled to the California Gold Rush


  • By land
  • By sea via Panama
  • By sea round Cape Horn
• Conditions in the mining camps

  • Back-breaking work scraping or panning for gold
  • Tough conditions, disease spread due to lack of sanitation and poor diet
  • Miners spent wages on drink, women and gambling
  • Law and order was a big problem, with claim jumping and vigilantes
• When surface gold in California ran out, miners moved to the gold mines of the Rocky Mountains, which devastated the local Indian population
• Benefits of the California Gold Rush


  • Increased supply of money and encouraged more investment
  • San Francisco became a successful shipbuilding and flour milling centre, rivalling New York financially
  • Ensured the railroad would pass through California rather than Oregon
  • Wealth enabled the USA to play a leading role in world trade and buy essential materials for development