Joseph Smith's Assassination (1844) w/ Spencer W McBride

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2021

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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It’s June 27th. This day in 1844, Mormon leader Joseph Smith was killed by a mob that stormed a jail in Carthage, Illinois. Earlier that spring, Smith had announced his candidacy for president.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by Spencer W McBride to talk about Smith’s political ambitions, his surprisingly progressive platform, and his assassination.

Spencer W. McBride’s latest book is “Joseph Smith for President.” You can find his work at spencerwmcbride.com

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro, Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:11.0	This day June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Church of
0:16.8	Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church, is
0:21.0	murdered along with his brother, Hir Hiram when a mob breaks into a
0:24.8	jail that they are being held in in Carthage, Illinois. That is a notable event for
0:29.8	sure, but what makes it especially notable for this podcast at least is that Smith was a presidential
0:34.4	candidate at the time. Earlier that spring he had announced that he was running as an independent,
0:38.8	his first foray into formal politics. One interesting distinction is that Smith was the
0:44.3	first presidential candidate to be killed in the United States. So here to discuss
0:48.8	the presidential candidacy and the death of Joseph Smith are as always
0:52.4	Nicole Hemmer of Columbia and
0:53.9	Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there. Hello Jody. Hey there.
0:58.4	And our special guest for this episode is Spencer McBride, Associate Managing
1:02.4	historian of the Joseph Smith Papers Project.
1:05.1	He's written a number of books and articles about the intersection of Mormonism and
1:09.6	politics.
1:10.6	And guess what? He just published a book called Joseph Smith for President.
1:14.0	So Spencer, you're a guy. I'm confident to say.
1:17.0	I hope so. It's good to do with you guys.
1:20.0	So since we are hooking it and talking a little bit about the death of Smith, I wonder if we can start there.
1:27.0	And I will just start to sketch the picture and then you can actually paint it.
	...

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