There are two sets of children in this novel The first involves the children of the Mormons who suffered persecution in Missouri and Illinois in the late 1830 s and early 1840 s These children can be included with the children of the Fancher Baker Wagon Train who were not murdered at Mountain Meadows in 1857 but who saw it all and were eventually returned to relatives in Arkansas. The second set of children in the novel are the grown up children who perpetrated endorsed or passively accepted in both Missouri Illinois and Utah Territory atrocity as something approved by God Suffer The Children A Murder of Innocents