And again, verily I say unto you concerning your debts.

Behold, it is by will that you shall pay all your debts.

Doctrine and Covenants 104-78.

Hey listeners, this is Casey Griffith with Book of Mormon Central, and today's podcast addresses

the question, why did Joseph Smith file for bankruptcy? In the 1840s, Navu's

position along the Mississippi River had the potential to provide a plethora of economic

opportunities for the Latter-day Saints if they could find a way to transport people and goods

through a narrow channel around the treacherous Des Moines Rapids, which lay just to Navu south.

To that end, Joseph Smith and four other entrepreneurial Latter-day Saints had purchased a former

government steamboat, appropriately called the Des Moines, at a public auction in Quincy, Illinois,

on September 10, 1840. Peter Haas was the principal purchaser, and Joseph, his brother Hiram, and two others, signed

the purchase as guarantors.

The boat weighed 93 tons, was 120 feet long, and was about half the size of an average

Mississippi steamer, hence admirably suited to negotiate the rapids.

The new Latter-day St. saint owners renamed it the Navu,

and put it to work transporting passengers and freight up and down the Mississippi.

Unfortunately, after just two months of operations, the Navu was run aground,

and the damage was serious enough that the Navu never operated again under Mormon control.

This wreck sank any hopes of the Saints using the Navu never operated again under Mormon control. This wreck sank any hopes of the

saints using the Navu to bring economic opportunities to this city and drowned the purchasers

and debts that were hard to pay off, especially without the income the operations of the steamer

had been expected to bring in. The Latter-day Saint owners had sued the river pilots for negligently operating the steamer,

...