Like Other Human Beings

Joseph Smith

General Smith's Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States, Nauvoo, Illinois, 7 February 1844, 3-4, 9, 11.-

Break off the shackles from the poor Black man, and hire him to labor like other human beings, “He pointed to the great American paradox as a problem that needed resolution: a nation founded on the principles that “all men are created equal” simultaneously held

“some two or three millions of people . .. as slaves for life, because the spirit in them is covered with a darker skin than ours.” …He similarly called on the promises of the U.S. Constitution to be fulfilled and left no doubt that in his view that document “meant just what it said without reference to color or condition.”