I read that in 1665 the Duke's Law made denying the "true God" punishable by death in New York. Would someone suspected of this receive a trial? Would it be public, or fair? If they were found guilty, what would be the method of execution? Was execution always the punishment?
10 reasons a zealous, colonial New York man name Martin Harris was the father of Mormonism. His heinous acts secretly saved America.
1.History shows that in the early 1800's the United States of America was a fledgling new republic growing one state a year for almost 25 years then it suddenly faced imminent doom. After Missouri was created as the 24th state in 1821, no more states were created for the next 15 years. Mormon scholar's know 1820 is the year Mormon history claims the "Book of Mormon" started. In reality, work on compiling it had already begun.
2.Martin Harris was a member of the secretive but fragmented Freemasonry brotherhood which had deep roots throughout the new republic's government. Other members of the fragmented brotherhood include England's Captain James Cook (he discovered Hawaii and polygamy), 1st President George Washington (owner of 300 slaves, slavery was allowed to quickly build the new republic's economy), Benjamin Franklin (native born, served as governor of Pennsylvania, was also a wealthy oligarch, ambassador to nations, inventor, researcher, multiple pseudonym using multi-national propagandist and newspaper owner), Paul Revere (patriot, wealthy metallurgist and talented brass and copper artisan more than capable of creating or conceptualizing the Liahona, Urim and Thummin, the breastplate, the Sword of Laban, and the "Gold/Brass/Copper plates" themselves). Also, all recognized early Mormon leaders including Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Martin Harris were members of the brotherhood. Joseph Smith's membership was likely faked or forced.
3.Martin Harris had the means to easily bribe (or force) other authors to let their publishing's and other writings be part of the compiling of the Book of Mormon. This includes publishing's by Gilbert Hunt, Ethan Smith (no relation to Joseph), Michael Linning, William Alexander Laurie, Charles Anthon and others.
4.Martin Harris and his father lived in Palmyra for decades before the Smith family moved there. Harris was 16 years older than Joseph and 22 years older than Joseph's oldest brother Alvin. The Smith family was easy prey for the capable Harris. The Smith family's reputation as naive and gullible treasure diggers was the perfect cover for the plan the zealous Martin Harris heinously appropriated from the brotherhood. Knowing a "book" could be compiled and be the foundation of a new religion, Martin Harris first chose Alvin as his puppet to be the voice of the new relig
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I was thinking about how some of my recent ancestors' religious affiliation seemed to be based on geography and class (in an aspirational sense) more than on family tradition or ethnic background, and then I started wondering how that might have worked in earlier phases of American religious history. For instance, my paternal grandparents grew up in small towns and I think were brought up Methodist, but by the time they got married in Cleveland, they belonged to an Episcopalian parish because, according to my dad, they hoped to benefit from the superior prestige of Episcopalianism. But that distinction has to postdate the Second Great Awakening, right? So how did people choose their church before that?
I've also been thinking a lot about the wealth of families like the Schuylers and the Revolutionary loyalties of Philip Schuyler, father of my current historical crushes Elizabeth Hamilton and Angelica Church. In a region full of rich Dutch people (but not so many other kinds of Calvinists, as far as I know), would Reformed Protestantism have held any attraction for people who weren't Dutch, or would it have been too Dutch or too old-school even for people of Dutch descent?
