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Did Solomon Spalding write the original Book of Mormon?

Did Solomon Spalding write the original Book of Mormon?

Last updated on: January 20, 2025 at 12:48 pm by Dan Peterson

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Did Solomon Spalding write the original Book of Mormon? 2025-01-20T12:48:10-07:00 Dan Peterson

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Sidney Rigdon, Emma Smith, and Joseph Smith, on the set of “Six Days in August” (still photo by James Jordan)

An important part of the Interpreter Foundation’s effort to support the early portion of this year’s Come, Follow Me curriculum is our calling renewed attention to the short-video features that we created in connection with the Witnesses film project. Here is today’s offering:

Episode 9: Is the Spaulding Argument Valid?

Witnesses of the Book of Mormon—Insights: Through the years, much has been made of the argument that a man by the name of Solomon Spaulding (or Spalding) wrote a manuscript that was used by Joseph Smith as his source for the Book of Mormon. Is there any validity to these claims? This is Episode 9 of a series compiled from the many interviews conducted during the course of the Witnesses film project. . . . These additional resources are hosted by Camrey Bagley Fox, who played Emma Smith in Witnesses, as she introduces and visits with a variety of experts. These individuals answer questions or address accusations against the witnesses, also helping viewers understand the context of the times in which the witnesses lived. This week we feature Gerrit Dirkmaat, Associate Professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. For more information, go to https://witnessesofthebookofmormon.org/. Learn about the documentary movie Undaunted—Witnesses of the Book of Mormon at https://witnessesundaunted.com/.

Another important part of our effort is that, as I announced here yesterday, we have now made the docudrama Undaunted available for streaming at no charge: See the entry for it at The Witnesses Initiative.

In this promotional still from “A Victim of the Mormons” (1911), an evil missionary (played by Vladimir Psilander) marries a bevy of young virgins in the Salt Lake Temple. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image).

In other movie news, I continue to accumulate interesting specimen from media coverage of the current Netflix hit miniseries American Primeval.

Here is a critical response, roughly nine minutes in length, from a believing Latter-day Saint: A Thoughtful Faith: “A Bigoted Fantasy: Why American Primeval IS NOT History.” (You have to admit that the woman who shows up at approximately 1:08 seems to be a very careful, meticulous, and discerning scholar of history.)

A quibble: As the speaker himself indicates in a postscript, what he says about the relative roles of Indians and Latter-day Saints in the podcast is not quite accurate. He was relying upon the late Leonard Arrington, a preeminent Latter-day Saint historian and (among other things) a biographer of Brigham Young. But we know more about the tragedy at Mountain Meadows now than we did when Professor Arrington wrote his biography.

As I’ve already observed here, the best treatments of the Mountain Meadows Massacre now in print are

Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley, and Glen M. Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows (Oxford University Press, 2011)
Richard E. Turley and Barbara Jones Brown, Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath (Oxford University Press, 2023)
Janiece Johnson, Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture(The University of North Carolina Press, 2023)

And, if you really, really, want to get into the subject, another important scholarly reference publication that serves as a basis for at least the latter two books is Richard E. Turley Jr., Janiece L. Johnson, and LaJean Purcell Carruth, Mountain Meadows Massacre: Collected Legal Papers, 2 vols. (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017).

But it’s time to go from serious history to, well, whatever it is that Hollywood and its devotees are serving up: The following two quotations come from a site called The Manual (“From Deadwood to Yellowstone: 8 movies and shows like American Primeval to binge next: These movies and shows will quench your thirst for more of the Wild West”). The first of them is about American Primeval itself. The second refers to the earlier Hulu hit miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven:

“American Primeval is the latest big Netflix series and it gives great insights into the ways the Mormon religion gained footing in Utah during the Mormon War throughout 1857 and 1858.”

Conventional historians have imagined that “the Mormon religion” had “gained footing in Utah” commencing with the arrival of the first pioneer company in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake during the summer of 1847 and with the subsequent founding, to the north and to the south, of cities and towns such as Salt Lake City (1847), Bountiful (1847), Ogden (1848), West Jordan (1848), Kaysville (1849), Provo (1849), Manti (1849), Tooele (1849), Parowan (1851), Brigham City (1851), Nephi (1851), Fillmore (1851), Cedar City (1851), Beaver (1856), Wellsville (1856), and Washington (1856). The Manual apparently thinks that “the Mormon religion gained footing in Utah” via military conquests in “the Mormon War throughout 1857 and 1858.” A subtle difference, perhaps, but undoubtedly very helpful for outsiders trying to understand the faith of their Latter-day Saint neighbors.

“Under the Banner of Heaven is set in Utah just like American Primeval. It examines the influence of the Mormon religion on a pair of murderers who take out a mother and her daughter in the name of the Church. While not a traditional Western, this miniseries is a thorough interpretation of what the people who go to the LDS Church are capable of when they use religion for evil instead of good.”

Hmmmm. Did the Lafferty brothers “go to the LDS Church”? Were Ron and Dan Lafferty members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in good standing? Are my Latter-day Saint neighbors likely to murder me any time soon? Inquiring minds want to know!

This presentation might help concerned citizens find answers to questions that trouble them about the potentially lethal presence of Latter-day Saints in their communities: “Was the Early Mormon Church Really a Violent Faith? | American Primeval”

The Eyring Science Center at Brigham Young University
(A photo by Mark A. Philbrick of BYU; Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Finally, in closing, I offer a couple of links that might shed light on the direction that leaders of the Church are providing for Brigham Young University. Some critics have sought to portray the University as entering a dark and oppressive age of theocratic thought control. I, on the other hand, am happy and enthusiastic about the very intentional way in which Church and University leadership are acting. Of course, much depends upon the manner in which principles are implemented. I hope that application will be intelligent, charitable, and kind, but also that mercy will not rob justice. I strongly support the principles:

“Stewardship to God is a necessary component of religious freedom, Elder Gilbert says: The Church’s education commissioner tells J. Reuben Clark Law Society that religious freedom, institutional governance and stewardship to God all work together to create correct condition for religious expression”

“BYU, other Latter-day Saint schools will not drift from church governance, leader says: Elder Clark G. Gilbert, commissioner of education for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, says hiring policy is one way church and schools will remain aligned”

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