Lucy Mack Smith (July 8, 1775 - May 14, 1856) was the mother of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. She is most noted for writing an award-winning memoir: Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations. She was an important leader of the movement during the life of Joseph. Mormons see Lucy as a model of the early nineteenth-century republican mother, who displayed piety, dispe...
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Lucy Mack Smith (July 8, 1775 - May 14, 1856) was the mother of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. She is most noted for writing an award-winning memoir: Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations. She was an important leader of the movement during the life of Joseph. Mormons see Lucy as a model of the early nineteenth-century republican mother, who displayed piety, dispensed values, shaped character at the domestic hearth, and brought up her sons in the paths of civic virtue preparing the way for such a restoration with an unshakable faith in her mission.
In the rural areas of northern New England where the Smiths lived, the proliferation of evangelical religious sects and the pre-Victorian emphasis on the family as a moral force were especially significant forces in Lucy's life. Migrants to this area had taken with them the revolutionary spirit of political independence. They had also encouraged the...
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