imagine him meeting emily dickenson. [laughter] and mormonism actually began in new york state, as many of you obviously probably know right in upstate new york in a place called the burntover district because of the series of revivals, religious revivals that had been sweeping through that particular part of the country and then went west and then farther west. so that's part of this period too and, of course, should go and can't go without saying is the anti-slavery movement which was gathering more and more momentum in the years after 1848, particularly after the mexican-american war ended in 1848 when the united states became a much bigger country and the disposition -- sorry about that -- the disposition of the land that was acquired from mexico was a matter of some concern. shall it be free or shall it be slave? and that a was a dialogue that became so acrimonious, a debate that became so tours that, of course -- furious that, of course, it spiraled into what we think of as the civil war, the war between the states