30 And, as it happened, it was their lot to have fallen into the hands of a more hardened and a more stiffnecked people; therefore they would not hearken unto their words, and they had cast them out, and had smitten them, and had driven them from house to house, and from place to place, even until they had arrived in the land of Middoni; and there they were taken and cast into prison, and bound with strong cords, and kept in prison for many days, and were delivered by Lamoni and Ammon.
What they suffered we can’t imagine. They were spit upon, physically assaulted, beaten, probably stoned as they fled from people’s homes who rejected them, and driven from place to place, which means that they could not rest anywhere without being persecuted and afflicted by those who hated them, and eventually imprisoned, suffering many days, living in their own filth, naked, starving, and probably beaten regularly. Oh! Man’s inhumanity to man! I will never comprehend it! And hope that I never do. For the only way to comprehend it is to experience it.
However, this does give some insight into the associations and intermingling of the two peoples, the Nephites and Lamanites. There were apparently enough Nephites among them that they didn’t simply kill one at first sight, as would be the case when at war. There must have been a relatively steady supply of Nephite defectors who joined the Laminates. Or at least so it seems.
Apparently assumptions in regard to what they suffered was not inaccurate, as evidenced by this footnote I just read:
29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.
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