And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren...
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This passage claims that a group called the Lamanites had dark skin imposed on them as divine punishment for rebelling against their righteous kin. It frames skin color as a visible curse marking transgression, distinguishing the disobedient from the obedient. In modern terms, it presents pigmentation as a moral verdict from God rather than a biological trait, treating physical difference as evidence of ancestral wrongdoing and spiritual estrangement from a chosen lineage.
Joseph Smith dictated this in the Book of Mormon (1830), the founding scripture he claimed to translate from golden plates near Palmyra, New York. As Mormonism's prophet-founder, his text identified Native Americans as Lamanite descendants, embedding a racial origin story into church doctrine. The passage shaped LDS teaching for over a century, influencing missionary work to Indigenous peoples and a 1978 priesthood ban reversal, and reflects Smith's role as both scriptural author and lineage-builder.
Smith published this in 1830s frontier New York during the Second Great Awakening, when revivalist sects competed for converts and Americans sought new revelations. Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act passed the same year, and white settlers debated Indigenous origins, often citing the 'Lost Tribes of Israel' theory. Slavery was entrenched, and pseudo-scientific racism linked skin color to divine hierarchy. Smith's curse narrative fit prevailing assumptions that physical difference signaled spiritual or moral status before God.
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