Mormonism's Secret Combinations & the Masons

Critics have long seen the “Gadianton robbers,” a violent revolutionary group that plays a recurring role in the Book of Mormon, as clear proof that Joseph Smith drew upon his early 19th-century American environment to create a fictional narrative. Although Freemasonry is far less central to American life today, it was a very big deal in the Republic’s formative years. Moreover, controversy swirled about it in western New York precisely while Joseph lived there. Almost since the publication of the Book of Mormon, therefore, some critics have dismissed the Gadianton robbers as thinly disguised Freemasons.