Mormons

Definition

Members of a religious movement founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, whose persecution encouraged migration west under Brigham Young.

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Paper 1

Members of a Christian religious movement founded by Joseph Smith in 1830.
The Mormons wanted a community where they could practise their religion without persecution. Miners hoped that discovering gold would make them wealthy. These different aims influenced both where migrants went and the challenges they faced.
Revise: Early Settlers and Challenges
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a religious movement whose followers settled in Utah after experiencing persecution elsewhere in the United States.
Revise: The Mormons

1
Keep destinations distinct: the Donner Party headed for California; the Mormons settled near the Great Salt Lake; the Oregon Trail led towards Oregon.
2
For Mormon success, explain how organisation helped: advance parties prepared the route, while irrigation supplied fresh water for farming.
3
Keep the chronology clear: Joseph Smith was murdered in 1844, the Mormons left Illinois in 1846, and Brigham Young’s advance party reached Salt Lake Valley in July 1847.

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Paper 2

The Mormons migrated for a different reason: they wanted to escape religious persecution and establish a community where they could practise their faith. Joseph Smith, who founded their movement in 1830, was murdered by a mob in 1844. His successor, Brigham Young, led the search for a safer home.
Revise: Migration and Early Settlement

Paper 3

A religious group belonging to the movement founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, whose members sought a community where they could practise their faith without persecution.
The Mormons were a religious group founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Their distinctive religious claims, and the practice of polygamy, contributed to hostility from other Christians. They repeatedly moved to escape persecution, eventually settling at Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1839.
Revise: Migrants