Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was twenty-four, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death fourteen years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and founded a religious culture that continues to the present.

Mormonism is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity. Joseph Smith founded the movement in Western New York in the 1820s. During the 1830s and 1840s, it distinguished itself from traditional Protestantism. Mormonism represents the faith taught by Smith in the 1840s. After he was killed in 1844, most Mormons followed Brigham Young on his westward journey to the area that became the Utah Territory, calling themselves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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