Week 1 Lab: Before the Fracture

What Nauvoo looked like in early 1844 — the overlapping bodies with a claim to authority, before anyone had to use it

22 February 2027

Before the lab#

Read the course outline and the framework it uses all semester: a succession vacuum, a charismatic claim, a doctrinal pivot, and an institutional or legal response. Skim the assessment page’s list of Latter Day Saint splinter churches and pick one to follow across the semester — you’ll need it for Assignment 1.

In the lab#

A walk through Nauvoo, Illinois in early 1844: the Nauvoo Legion, the Council of Fifty’s secret political ambitions, and the fact that Joseph Smith held more concurrent titles — mayor, lieutenant general, prophet, presidential candidate — than any one successor could plausibly inherit at once. We name the four bodies who will each, within weeks of his death, argue they were the one he meant to leave it to.

Afterwards#

No mark this week. You leave with the framework and a splinter group of your own to track — everything from week 2 onward tests it against a real case.