This concluding volume of the Documents Series of The Joseph Smith Papers details the tumultuous final six weeks of Joseph Smith's life. He was assassinated on 27 June 1844 by an armed mob that invaded the Hancock County, Illinois, jail at Carthage. The murder was the culmination of animosities that had developed throughout the early 1840's between the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo, Hancock County, and their neighbors in and around the county.

Documents, Volume 15 features documents created between 16 May and 28 June 1844. These documents reveal a period filled with lawsuits, accusations, threats, and violence against the Latter-day Saints. During this time, Joseph Smith acted as a judge in various lawsuits and as a defendant in several others. Each lawsuit heightened tensions in the county as critics grew increasingly concerned about the extent of his power in Nauvoo. Meanwhile a schism widened that had emerged between Joseph Smith and a small group of disaffected Latter-day Saints in the early months of 1844. Conflicts with these men came to  a head during June 1844 and ultimately contributed to the murders of Joseph and his brother Hyrum.

This volume illuminates the opposition to the Saints that raged throughout western Illinois in May and June 1844 and Joseph Smith's efforts to protect himself and the lives of his followers. It also evinces the grief experienced following his death. The Saints proclaimed the brothers “innocent of any crimes” and classed them among the martyrs whose names would “go down to posterity as gems for the sanctified.”

Hard cover.