Joseph Smith Was an Abolitionist — The Historical Record
The “racist prophet” narrative requires ignoring the historical record. Joseph Smith was one of the most prominent anti-slavery voices of his day.
The 1844 Presidential Platform
Joseph Smith ran for President of the United States in 1844. His platform, published in the pamphlet General Smith’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States, called for the end of slavery through gradual, compensated emancipation — freeing enslaved people by paying slaveholders, with the funds raised from the sale of public lands. This is not the platform of a man who endorsed slavery.
He was assassinated the same year. Critics who call him a racist prophet are describing a man who died running on an emancipation presidential platform. The record does not support the narrative. (See the Church’s history topic on Slavery and Abolition.)
Compensated Emancipation
The centerpiece of Joseph Smith’s anti-slavery position was his proposal for compensated emancipation: the federal government would purchase the freedom of enslaved people from their owners, financing the cost through revenue from the sale of public lands. It was a concrete, documented policy — the same general mechanism Abraham Lincoln would later advocate — aimed at ending slavery without bloodshed. (See “What is compensated emancipation?”)
Scholars including Margaret Robertson, writing in BYU Studies, and the historian Newell Bringhurst have examined this platform and Joseph Smith’s broader anti-slavery views. A man who runs for President on a plan to buy enslaved people their freedom is not performing the actions of a slavery sympathizer. He is advancing the cause of emancipation.
D&C 101:79 and Agency
“It is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.”
This revelation was recorded in 1833 — decades before the Civil War. D&C 101:79 is a direct doctrinal statement against slavery, published in canonized scripture under Joseph Smith’s direction. The man who recorded “it is not right that any man should be in bondage” as revealed doctrine was not a defender of slavery. He was its doctrinal opponent.
The Missouri Context
LDS members in Missouri were expelled partly because Missouri slaveholders feared they were abolitionists — which many were. The fear was documented. It was not unfounded.
The community that Missouri slaveholders identified as an abolitionist threat was the same community Joseph Smith led. The enemies of slavery recognized him correctly. Modern critics have it backwards.
What Joseph Smith Actually Said About Race
Elijah Abel was ordained an elder under Joseph Smith. Walker Lewis was ordained. These are not the ordination records of a racist prophet — they are ordination records that contradict the narrative directly.
Joseph Smith’s own statements about the equality of all people before God are documented. The restriction that came later — under Brigham Young, not Joseph Smith — was a policy change, not Joseph Smith’s doctrine.
The distinction matters. Critics who apply Brigham Young’s policy to Joseph Smith’s character are making a historical error — whether deliberate or uninformed. Joseph Smith is not Brigham Young. The records are not interchangeable.
Verdict
The “racist prophet” narrative is contradicted by four independent lines of evidence:
The Historical Record Against the Narrative
- Presidential Platform — Joseph Smith ran for President in 1844 on a platform to end slavery
- Compensated Emancipation — He proposed freeing enslaved people by paying slaveholders, funded by the sale of public lands (Slavery and Abolition)
- Recorded Scripture — D&C 101:79 states slavery is wrong, canonized in 1833
- Priesthood Ordinations — Elijah Abel and Walker Lewis were ordained under his authority
It is a narrative constructed from later policy — under a different leader, in a different era — retroactively applied to a man whose record says otherwise. That is not history. That is argument by misdirection.
The historical Joseph Smith was an abolitionist. The scripture says so. The platform says so. The ordination records say so.