No Place for Saints: Mobs and Mormons in Jacksonian America by Adam Jortner (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: No Place for Saints: Mobs and Mormons in Jacksonian America by Adam Jortner Christopher Rich No Place for Saints: Mobs and Mormons in Jacksonian America By Adam Jortner (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021. Pp. 185. Notes, index. Paperbound, $22.95.) For many Americans, tales of angelic visitations, seer stones, and speaking in tongues seem like a peculiar manifestation of the religious impulse. It is therefore no surprise that Mormonism, built on a foundation of such supernatural phenomena, is often treated as a kind of exotic curiosity. Outlandish claims can render its practitioners suspect, particularly when they enter the field of politics. Indeed, the active participation of Latter-day Saints in the [End Page 189] democratic process has occasionally incited ordinary Americans to commit acts of extreme violence. In his recent book, No Place for Saints: Mobs and Mormons in Jacksonian America, Adam Jortner examines the convergence of ecstatic religion and politics that prompted the citizens of Jackson County, Missouri, to form a vigilance committee during the summer of 1833 and expel over a thousand Mormons from their homes. Jortner also demonstrates that the Latter-day Saints, and their commitment to the supernatural, were not quite as unique as they may appear. Jortner spends much of his narrative placing the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, and his followers within the context of early nineteenth-century religious revivalism. He argues that this period was generally characterized by rampant sectarianism and a desire among the faithful for supernatural manifestations of grace, with a heavy undercurrent of folk magic flowing just below the surface. According to Jortner, Smith's restorationist message and claims of spiritual power fit comfortably within a landscape already populated by Separate Baptists, Campbellites, Rigdonites, Owenites, and Shakers. While many scholars focus on the conditions that existed near Smith's home in upstate New York, the "Burned-Over District," Jortner emphasizes that this revival was national in scope. Yet, many mainline Protestants opposed such religious enthusiasm, viewing it as a threat to traditional Christian doctrines. From their perspective, supernatural occurrences were deeply suspicious, and those who experienced them were either deluded fanatics or charlatans. Jortner explains that such misgivings normally did not result in violence, although men like Joseph Smith were occasionally prosecuted when they used their gifts for money-making ventures. This situation changed when groups or individuals who professed supernatural abilities became involved in politics. For many Jacksonian Americans, Jortner argues, this posed a fundamental threat to democracy. He contends that Mormon religious claims became increasingly objectionable to the residents of Jackson County, as it became apparent that the growing population of Latter-day Saints would ultimately consolidate political control over the region. Fueled by heated rumors of Mormon excesses, "the people" of Jackson County literally and figuratively expelled Latter-day Saints from the community and the benefits of citizenship. Surprisingly, Jortner does little to situate the Mormon expulsion from Jackson County within the extensive historiography of American collective violence. The period from the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 until the Civil War was a particularly chaotic [End Page 190] time, marked by urban riots and mob attacks against many unpopular minority groups such as abolitionists, African Americans, Irish, Germans, Catholics, and Latter-day Saints. But Jortner largely ignores these larger trends. At the same time, his emphasis on religion causes him to downplay other factors contributing to the expulsion, such as perceived Mormon attitudes toward race and slavery. In fact, Jortner's analysis of these events is not particularly concerned with local conditions in Missouri and how they differed from, for example, the Mormon experience in New York or Ohio. Jortner's focus on the religious context of these events is nevertheless a welcome addition to existing scholarship. He is particularly effective at normalizing Mormon supernaturalism within a broad restorationist milieu. Jortner also provides insight concerning the early Church of Christ and Joseph Smith's continual struggles to assert administrative control over a movement that highly valued personal ecstatic experiences. Finally, Jortner's insistence that the intersection of ecstatic religion and democratic politics played a fundamental role in the Jackson County expulsion provides an intriguing basis for analyzing other episodes of collective violence. Christopher...