It should be pointed out that the source of the information you posted is in fact the very people who drove Mormons out of their homes in the dead of winter, tarred and feathered and murdered their men, women and children, burnt their homes and cities to the ground and finally murdered their prophet and called it “frontier justice”. FYI, the word of self-justifying, mass murders, in some corners of the world, is suspect at best.
It should be pointed out that the source of the information you posted is in fact LDS Living Magazine. Please don’t claim there is no bias in their ridiculously exaggerated hagiography of “the Prophet.”
Part of the motive was the successful farming of new lands, making them very desirable - anyway they could be taken
wow - 23 posts before someone began to claim persecution