“Joseph Smith’s day” (1805-1844, USA)“Pure/White and Delightsome People” Manifest Destiny and US expansion

"Joseph Preaching to the Lamanites" over a map from an Ensign article called "Who and Where are the Lamanites?"

In 2 Nephi 30:6, Mormon God promised the descendants of Lamanites (contemporary Indigenous peoples and Pacific Islanders), who are “cursed with a skin of blackness,” that if they assimilate to Mormonism “they shall be a pure and a delightsome People.”

In editions of the Book of Mormon published between 1840 and 1981 this same text read: “they shall be a white and delightsome People.” 

In a video from Book of Mormon Central this change is referred to as “a small change because in Joseph Smith’s day the dictionary definition of ‘white’ and ‘pure’ were nearly identical.” 

The narrator says this as if it nullifies any white-supremacy in equating purity and whiteness. The narrator tries to use dictionary definitions as if they are inherently unbiased, ignoring the omnipresent white-supremacy “of Joseph Smith’s day” that created the definitions of those words. 

So, I've made a very brief and incomplete timeline of some major events of Joseph Smith’s day. 

An overview: “Joseph Smith’s day,” 1805-1844, is a period of US history marked by Indigenous displacement, “Manifest Destiny,” and the expansion of enslavement and settler occupation of Indigenous lands. During his lifetime Euro-settler and enslaved African populations more than doubled. 

Manifest Destineers believed that God was causing the Indigenous peoples to disappear from their lands, Cleansing and Purifying the land for His chosen White settlers, this idea is reified in the literature of the time like, “The Last of the Mohicans” and the “Book of Mormon.”

Bordering Joseph’s lifespan the US expanded its borders from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Essential to this expanded occupation were massacres, genocides, and forced displacements of Indigenous peoples to make room for the growing white-settler population. Mormonism, as a fringe religion, followed the edge of the so-called American Frontier as it expanded from New York, to Ohio, to Missouri, Illinois, and the Great Basin. There is nothing racially neutral about Joseph Smith’s day or the dictionary definitions of ‘white’ and ‘pure’ (or the Book of Mormon).

1800 
> ~1/6th of the US population is enslaved. 
> Abolitionist, John Brown, is born

1803
> Louisiana Purchase expands US occupation from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. 

1805
> Joseph Smith (JS) born
> White-supremacist sculpture, Horatio Greenough, is born. Of his piece, “The Rescue,” commissioned by the US for display on the US Capitol steps, he said it is meant "to convey the idea of the triumph of the whites over the savage tribes"

1820 
> ~⅙ of the US population is enslaved. White-settler population grew by more than 4 million, and the enslaved population grew by more than 600,000 since 1800. 
> JS reported date for First Vision of God and Jesus
> The Missouri Compromise expands enslavement in the US
> Land Act of 1820 pushes more and more white settlers into more and more Indigenous peoples lands

1823 
> JS reports seeing Angel Moroni and attempting to unearth the Golden Plates for first time
> Monroe Doctrine forbids Euro influence in the so-called Americas essentially claiming it for the US. 
> Seminole are sent to a reservation
 
1824 
> JS, Angel Moroni, Golden Plates attempt 2
> The US Government established a Half-Breed Tract in so-called Iowa. 
> Iowa People displaced to reservation in so-called Kansas 

1826
> JS, Angel Moroni, Golden Plates attempt 4 
> Wildly popular, settler fantasy-fiction, “Last of the Mohicans” is published which perpetuated the settler-myth that Indigenous people were disappearing in some divine cleansing rather than being actively destroyed by themselves.

1827
> JS reports receiving the Golden Plates. 
> Ho-Chunk attack after settler-miners trespass in their home/land. The US sends military. Ho-Chunk resistance leader, Red Bird is imprisoned and dies there and his People are “compelled” to cede land to the US and their settler-miners. 

1830
> White-settler population grew by more than 3 million, and enslaved population grew by ~500,000 since 1820.
> First Book of Mormon is published and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is officially organized. 
> Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act which causes Trail of Tears
> First Missionaries to the “Lamanites” sent to the Cattaraugus Reservation 

1831
> Joseph declares Mormon Zion to be in Osage, Kiikaapoi, and Očhéth lands (so-called Missouri). 
> Cherokee attempt to defend themselves in the US Supreme Court against Georgia State laws that “go directly to annihilate the Cherokees as a political society.” Their case is denied.

1835
> JS forges the Book of Abraham from Egyptian funerary text, he’d found on stolen Egyptian mummies he’d purchased.
> PT Barnum makes money entertaining white-settlers through  Joice Heth, a black women he claims is the 161-year-old formerly-enslaved nursemaid to George Washington
> Treaty of New Echota is signed by the US and a minority Cherokee political faction. It was not signed by the Cherokee National Council or Principal Chief John Ross. This was used as a legal justification for the Trail of Tears. 
> Spurred by the Indian Removal Act, the US will engage in war against the Seminole in so-called Florida for the next 7 years.

1840
> White-settler population grew by more than 4 million, and enslaved population grew by ~500,000 since 1830
> White-settler and enslaved African population more than doubled since 1800

1844
​> Joseph Smith is killed 
> Exclusion Law in Oregon prohibits Black People from entering the territory.