Essay On Mary Surratt's Trial

Mary Surratt should have been executed . She should have been executed because she lied about knowing people .

Mary Surratt was a “forty-two-year-old Maryland widow,” (Swanson 15). She was a Southerner before she moved to Washington D.C., which means that the Confederate belief still influenced her. She was also the mother of John Surratt, who was a “Confederate secret agent and friend of Booth’s,” (Swanson 15). She owned a boarding house in Washington D.C., which has been visited by many Confederates, including John Wilkes Booth and Lewis Powell. There are numerous indications that suggest she had something to do with the assassination plot that took place on April 14th, 1865.

Mary Surratt was the defendant among the executed that received a punishment far out weighing her role in the crime. Mary Surratt was convicted of conspiracy in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. She was sentenced to death and became the first woman to be executed by the U.S. government. Mary Surratt was the mother of John Surratt who was a conspirator that helped John Wilkes Booth plan Lincoln’s kidnap and later, his assassination. With the help of Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, “Lincoln and the Writ of Liberty,” and the movie The Conspirator, it can be proven that Mary Surratt’s punishment was unjust. Mary Surratt received a punishment far worse than what she deserved because she was innocent, blamed for her son’s actions, and she did

What would you do if you were accused of a crime you did not commit? Would you be angry, or would you fight it? What would you do if you were punished for proclaiming you were innocent? This was the reality of many people in Massachusetts in the late-1600s. The poem “Half-Hanged Mary”, by Margaret Atwood, is written about this situation. It tells the story of an alleged witch, Mary Webster, being hanged and left over night. The next morning, to the villager’s surprise, she was still alive. Mary continued living for another 14 years after the incident. Although, the theme seems to be about a witch surviving an execution; it is actually about an innocent person surviving an unjust assumption.

Mary Mallon was a woman of Irish descent who came to the United States as an immigrant to start a new life in 1886. She worked as a cook in a house where wealthy families came to celebrate their vacation. She was a healthy carrier of typhoid and made the guests sick and they died because of her. Although science had not been developed enough yet and she was tried unfairly it did not make her only a victim. Mary Mallon transformed from victim to villain. When she decided not to report to the police and return to cooking.

In January 1692, when a group of juvenile girls began to display bizarre behavior, the tight-knit Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts couldn’t explain the unusual afflictions and came to a conclusion. Witches had invaded Salem. This was the beginning of a period of mass hysteria known as The Salem Witch Trials. Hundreds of people were falsely accused of witchcraft and many paid the ultimate price of death. Nineteen people were hung, one was pressed to death, and as many as thirteen more died in prison. One of the accused Elizabeth Bassett Proctor, a faithful wife and mother, endured her fictitious accusation with honor and integrity.

Mary Eugenia Surratt was the first women who was put to death by the federal government. Her son, who was believed to also be involved with the plot, was tried in 1867. He was not released from prison until June, 1868. The hanging of his mother has been considered as a gross miscarriage of justice. Her prosecution never established that she knew anything about the plot and that she was not even part of the assassination plans. (De Witt, Campbell,

Mary Surratt was guilty and deserved to be put in prison for helping assassinate the president. Mary Surratt lied when it came to talking about the kidnap/assassination plot to kidnap/assassinat Abraham Lincoln and frequently talked to John Wilkes Booth.

The Salem Witch Trials has been argued as one of the most important and controversial topics in American history. The Salem Witch Trials concluded the war between faithful people and evil people, and brought the long awaited justice to Salem village. Different historians presented varying opinions about the consequences and effects of the Salem Witch Trials. Reverend Samuel Parris played a pivotal role in preaching Christianity as well as eradicating evil from Salem village at that time. Religion was enforced among the people of Salem village, which created dispute against church-members and the non-church members. Moreover, religion created social segregation and disunity existed between these two groups of people. When it was revealed that witches were diminishing the holiness of Salem village, witch-hunt was initiated, and proved to be very effective, resulting in many witches being brought to justice.

Mary Surratt, a women who assisted in killing Abraham Lincoln , is guilty of conspiracy because she knew what the plans where to assassinate the 16th president of the United States. She gave John Wilkes Booth, the killer of the president, and their follow colleagues a places to sleep and live, the boarding place she provided is also the place they came up with the plans to murder the president. One of the people who were around during this was John M. Lloyd, he was an assistant to Mrs.Surratt . As he describes Mrs. Surratt in his testimony, he had do several things that had to be done to make sure that their plan carried thru, Like getting an buggy to pick up Booth to go to the theater. Also Mrs.Surratt and Booth often held private meetings

Mary Surratt completely deserved her punishment because she could have turned Booth and his henchman into the proper authorities. Execution is a reasonable sentence because Surratt had the chance to save a life of a grand president, but her silence resulted in taking her life also.

Most Americans know John Wilkes Booth as the assassin of Abraham Lincoln- shot at a play at Ford’s Theater on April 14th, 1865. However, the names of the conspirators that surrounded Wilkes Booth are relatively unknown, especially that of Mary Surratt. Mary Surratt, a mother and boardinghouse proprietor, was arrested and tried for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln along with her son, John Surratt. Pleas from her family, lawyer, and fellow conspirators did not allow her to escape her fate, and she was hanged for her crimes on July 7th, 1865. Even from the scaffold, Lewis Powell, another conspirator condemned to die, cried, “Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us.” So who was this woman, and most

Mary Surratt should have not been executed, but imprisoned. Mary Surratt was guilty because she was a part of Abraham Lincoln’s kidnapping plot along with being untruthful.

Surratt and the other conspirators were convicted of being involved with John Wilkes Booth’s intricate plot to dissolve the Union government by killing President Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward. George Atzerodt was the conspirator that was tasked to kill Johnson, but he had second thoughts and got drunk at a tavern instead. Lewis Powell was supposed to kill Seward, but Powell failed and Seward was able to survive Powell’s attack on his life. Surratt was believed by many to be the epicenter around in which the whole conspiracy evolved. Many believed this because her boardinghouse was used as a meeting headquarters for the conspirators, including Booth and she had a personal relationship with Booth as well. After a month long trial and only two days of deliberation, all four conspirators were charged with collaborating to assassinate the President of the United States and were sentenced to be hung by the neck until dead for their crime. Throughout the whole trial process, Mary Surratt was the most hated woman in the country and there was little disbelief in Americans’ minds that she played a certain role in the assassination plot. For the almost 150 years since her execution, though, public opinion of her has been somewhat

Bitterly, he examined the evidence, and when put face-to-face with Surratt herself, Aiken was disgusted. The meeting between the two was one full of resentment, and Surratt went as far as telling Aiken that, “he was so blinded by hatred, he couldn’t even see the truth.” After hearing that statement, Aiken walked out of the prison cell. It was at some point throughout the process of going to court together and Surratt’s life relying on Aiken’s defense that Aiken began to see the injustice of the situation Mary Surratt was in. Perhaps it was the realization that Surratt is a fellow human being, or it was the sight of her daughter grieving over the situation her mother was placed in. Either way, Aiken opened his eyes to the foul play that put Mary Surratt behind bars, and he did everything in his power to stop that foul play from happening to her or anyone