Today is the anniversary of Joseph and Hyrum Smith’s Martyrdom. In this video, Casey Griffiths and Scott Woodward travel to Salt Lake City, Utah, and to Nauvoo, Warsaw, and Carthage in Illinois to review the events that led up to the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. As they visit these sites, they discuss two questions: Why was Joseph murdered? And why do Joseph’s and Hyrum’s deaths mean so much today? Read more here: https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/why-was-joseph-smith-murdere

Joseph Smith wasn’t just killed for his religion—it was also a political assassination, as he was running for president of the United States, and one political leader in particular was intent on seeing the end of Joseph Smith. By 1844, Nauvoo was booming—one of the biggest cities in Illinois, and Joseph Smith’s political influence terrified local leaders because the Latter-day Saints voted as a block. And then on top of that, Joseph Smith announced he would be running for the most important poli