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The Stage is Set

In nineteenth-century frontier America, many people (even educated people) believed firmly and sincerely in strange (and sometimes dangerous) medical procedures, folk remedies, magic, superstitions, dowsing, and treasure digging. In the nineteenth century, for instance, many people believed in alchemy—believing that baser metals could be turned into gold. Some of New England’s practicing alchemists were graduates from Yale and Harvard; one alchemist was Massachusetts’s Chief Justice.

Other frontier Americans (of various faiths and intellects) were actively pursuing treasure-digging by supernatural means. They often used divining rods or peep stones (seer stones) in their search. It was also commonly believed that the spirits of the dead (sometimes Spanish explorers, pirates, and even dwarves) guarded these buried treasures.

While “dowsers” often used rods or sticks to locate water or treasures, some nineteenth-century crystal gazers believed that lost or hidden objects could be seen—in vision—by looking into crystals or special stones. These folk magicians (and “magicians” is used here to denote those who believed in the power of supernatural tools) would sometimes place a seer stone into the dark of an upside-down hat to see if the stone shined with visions of lost objects. For instance, an 1825 New Orleans newspaper recorded the details of treasure-seeking through supernatural methods and a mineral stone’s help. This stone was placed into the bottom of an upside-down hat, and the diviner then placed his face in the hat to exclude all light. This caused the stone to become transparent and allowed the diviner to see supernatural visions.

Nineteenth-century treasure digging was more than a passing fad. Philadelphia, for instance, was known as a money-digging center in the early eighteenth century. Among those who engaged in frontier treasure digging, we can include devout Christians and clergymen. Only a particular person, or person with a special gift, spell, or tool, could gain access to the guarded treasure. Generally, frontier American Christians believed that the magical powers connected to “divining” (by seer stone or divining rod) were manifestations from God or of godly gifts.

In this environment, in 1823, Joseph Smith received a visitation from the Angel Moroni, who informed Joseph that golden plates containing a record of the early inhabitants of the Americas were buried in the side of a hill near his home.

Joseph the Diviner

Joseph Smith was not raised in a cultural vacuum. Like all people, Joseph Smith’s thoughts and worldviews were influenced by his environment. Joseph and his family—like their neighbors—were Christians. They believed in God, Jesus, and the Bible.

In Joseph’s day and environment, many Christians accepted beliefs that today might be labeled magic or, even worse, occultic. However, the modern application of those labels on past Christians is based on our assumptions of what Christianity should resemble. It doesn’t dictate the boundaries of what Christianity looked like to all nineteenth-century Americans. From within a paradigm of a people who accepted the Bible, miracles, and God’s ability to communicate with humans, some Christians in Joseph’s milieu (and even some people today) believed in the power of seer stones and divining rods. Many “magical” beliefs melded with their interpretation of Christianity, angels, and unseen forces. This could have prepared Joseph for the unearthing and translating of the Book of Mormon plates.

There is ample evidence that the Smith family was no different in cultural beliefs than the rest of their contemporaries, and we now know that Joseph owned and used more than one seer stone to divine for lost objects. He and some of his closest contemporaries believed that he had a God-given gift. When Joseph was given the plates and received revelation on Gospel restoration, he would likely have framed all this new information in light of his pre-existing ideas about magic.

Joseph was possibly more open-minded to miracles and visions and was, therefore, a perfect candidate for receiving angelic visitations and divine translations. In a sense, magic served its purpose in Joseph’s early years as preparation for what would come when he received the Book of Mormon plates. He was not one to automatically dismiss the “supernatural.”

When the Angel Moroni introduced Joseph to the Book of Mormon plates, it may have struck a familiar chord with Joseph. Our brains are wired to look for patterns and see coincidences. Joseph might have drawn a parallel to the visitation from Moroni (who told of golden plates) and the folklore of spirits who guarded buried treasure. Moroni’s visit may have helped to confirm Joseph’s belief in supernatural powers.

Lost and Found

Many Americans in Joseph’s day believed that the earliest New World inhabitants originally came from the ten lost tribes. When Joseph saw Moroni and learned of a record that early New World inhabitants kept, Joseph probably assumed that Moroni and the Book of Mormon were proof of the common theory regarding New World colonization. It’s also likely that Moroni’s visitation confirmed his existing belief about buried treasure and guardian spirits. Here was an angel (the spirit of a deceased ancient New World warrior) who appeared as the guardian of golden plates buried in a hill near his home. The patterns in Joseph’s worldview ultimately influenced how he must have initially understood the Book of Mormon people and the coming forth of the Nephite record.

Although Moroni was not a descendant of the ten lost tribes and was not granting Joseph access to a financial treasure trove, it seems silly to deny that Joseph may have automatically connected the dots to the pre-existing treasure-guardian-spirit belief that was common in his environment. How could he not? Just as Columbus intuitively (yet incorrectly) recognized that the Native Americans were “Indians” (he thought he had reached the Indies), so likewise, Joseph must have intuitively (and incorrectly) fit his Moroni vision and the details of plates into his broader community context of spirits and buried treasure.

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