“While the mob was raging in Jackson Co. Mo. in 1833 some young men ran down Hiram Page in the woods one of the eight witnesses, and commenced beating and pounding him with whips and clubs. He begged, but there was no mercy. They said he was a damned Mormon, and they meant to beat him to death! But finally one then said to him, if you will deny that damned book, we will let you go. Said he, how can I deny what I know to be true? Then they pounded him again. When they thought he was about to breathe his last, they said to him, Now what do you think of your God, when he don’t save you? Well said he, I believe in God—Well, said one of the most intelligent among them, I believe the damned fool will stick to it though we kill him. Let us let him go. But his life was nearly run out. He was confined to his bed for a length of time.”
Mitchell K. Schaefer, ed., William E. McLellin’s Lost Manuscript (Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn Books, 2012), 167.
For more information, see the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon — Insights series compiled from the many interviews conducted during the course of the Witnesses film project. These episodes 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. And watch the documentary movie Undaunted. Short clips from the Insights episode are also available on TikTok and Instagram.
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