Ports to Posts: Latter-Day Saint Gathering in the Nineteenth Century

Ports to Posts is the result of more than a quarter century of research in Latter-day Saint migration narratives from the nineteenth century. Fred E. Woods takes the reader from early church beginnings in upstate New York to ecclesiastical gathering places in Kirtland, Ohio, and Jackson County, Missouri. The journey then incorporates international European ports to Latter-day Saint gathering locations in Nauvoo, Illinois, and later in the Salt Lake Valley during the peak of this emigrant era.

Through these stories, the reader will learn about the missionary proselyting process and how it led converts to Liverpool, the primary place of embarkation, across the Atlantic, and into harbors at New Orleans, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. Authentic voices describe the challenges church members faced as they left their homelands and endured storms and the efforts of enemies who tried to dissuade them from their destinations. Ports to Posts captures not only the emigrants’ journeys but also how Americans perceived these often unwanted pilgrims. Woods’s research reveals the purpose and process by which Latter-day Saints gathered to create their American Zion and converts’ solemn obligation to assemble in American gathering places.

Fred E. Woods is a professor of religious education at Brigham Young University. He is the author or coauthor of many books, including most recently Bright Lights in the Desert: The Latter-day Saints of Las Vegas and of (with Malcolm Adcock) The Latter-day Saint Image in the British Mind.