Week 3 Lab: The Mantle of the Prophet

The August 8, 1844 conference where Brigham Young's Twelve out-argued Sidney Rigdon in front of the Nauvoo congregation

8 March 2027

Before the lab#

Read at least two competing eyewitness accounts of the August 8 conference — some written that week, some decades later — and note where they disagree.

In the lab#

Rigdon addresses the congregation first and is received badly; Brigham Young speaks, and multiple witnesses later describe seeing or hearing something they read as Joseph Smith’s presence in him. We treat the “mantle” claim as a case study in how a charismatic argument gets made and validated in real time, in a room, rather than through documents.

Afterwards#

Bring your notes on the eyewitness discrepancies to next week — they matter for the evidence standard Assignment 1 expects.