John Wilkes Booth: The Death Of A Conspirator

Although there have been numerous assassination plots and attempts, there have only been four successful presidential assassinations in the history of the U.S. Today I’ll be comparing and contrasting two different president killers: John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald. They lived almost a century apart, but still have many similarities. Lee and John basically did the same crime, assassinating a U.S President, however, they have numerous differences.

He ardently supported the institution of slavery and joined a Virginia company that helped capture abolitionist John Brown after the raid at Harper’s Ferry. Booth was present as an eyewitness at Brown’s 1859 execution and stood near a scaffold to guard against any attempt to rescue John Brown before the hanging. Booth was arrested in the spring of 1862 and taken before a provost marshal in St. Louis for making anti-government remarks. Booth tried to gain the respect of fellow Southerners by making a name for himself as an antislavery and anti-Union supporter and making himself be seen at and witness the anti-Union protests and events that were going on. He wanted to make it apparent, as he told his sister Asia, that his “soul, life, and possessions are for the South,” and gain a formidable amount of fame from both acting and politics. Booth hoped rise to stardom amongst Southerners as their advocate that was willing to dedicate his life to their cause to stop the abolishment of

The book essentially goes over Lincoln’s killer and his plans and what his thoughts were before, during and after the shooting of President Lincoln. It is a book that mainly focuses on John Wilkes Booth , the killer, and his plans and how it panned out. John Wilkes Booth was an actor and lived a wealthy life, he was someone who was considered very handsome by many and someone with fine clothes. His tactics per se were not well planned out. John Wilkes Booth had tried to kidnap President Lincoln before, but he failed to do so he planned on bringing Lincoln to the South and demanding peace, Boothe had recently heard about the appearance the Lincolns would be given at the Ford 's theatre, he knew the Lincoln’s would have a box inside the theatre where he would sit . Although he committed the act of assassinating President Lincoln he did not plan on how he was going to get through to him,the obstacles he would have to overcome, he just knew he would do whatever he needed to do to get the task done. Booth was someone who did not like Lincoln’s plans for America, especially the south. He yelled “ The South is avenged” after killing the president of the United States. Not only were his thoughts on ending the President but also the Vice President and the Secretary of State because of what they stood for.

Mary Surratt had John Wilkes Booth stay at her boarding house before the assassination of Lincoln. She said that she only knew about the kidnapping of president, but prosecutors believed that Surratt was lying because she wanted

When Booth found out that the president was coming to Ford’s Theater on April 14th, 1865, he was very determined to kill him. In chapter one, it reads, “Booth heard the big news: In just eight hours, the man who was subject of all his hating and plotting would stand on the very steps where he sat now.” This is talking about how excited Booth was when he found out the president was coming to the theater. Instantly, his mind started forming a cunning plan to annihilate the confederate leaders.

Mary Surratt was a part of Abraham Lincoln’s kidnapping plot. In Source one it states “Mary knew about the kidnaping part but not the plan to kill the Abraham Lincoln. Mary Surratt was guilty for trying to kidnap Abraham Lincoln. Source2 “Booth had originally wanted to kidnap the president.” Booth only wanted to kidnap Abraham Lincoln to give a little scare, but after a while he got the idea in his mind that he wanted to kill Abraham Lincoln. In Source 2 it states “But our cause being almost lost, something decisive must be done”. Booth had written in his diary on what he was planning on doing. “Abraham Lincoln’s secretary new, however chose to keep it a secret”. The secretary knew and didn’t tell anyone, not even Abraham Lincoln she could have helped him in not being shot.

Abraham Lincolns’ assassin, John Wilkes Booths’ family belonged to the Parrish. At the southeast corner of Fayette and Front street sits Shot Tower (the lead shot manufacturing facility from 1828 to 1892). Further down, moving east, past the Flag House (home of the Star-spangled Banner Flag), past the Carrolton Inn (“winter home of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signer of the Declaration of Independence”), down the street is, the President Street Station, converted to a museum. A Civil War museum about a mile away from a large white house of worship. According to the historian at the museum. The Booth’s (Junius Brutus Booth and Maryann Holmes and their ten children) had a winter house and were members of the large white steeple structure located

In March 1864, Ulysses S. Gift, the directing general of all the Union's armed forces, chose to suspend the trading of detainees of-war.[4] As cruel as it may have been on the detainees of both sides, Grant understood the trade was returning so as to draw out the war troopers to the dwarfed and labor starved South. John Wilkes Booth, a Southerner and candid Confederate sympathizer, considered an arrangement to capture President Lincoln and convey him to the Confederate Army, to be held prisoner until the North consented to resume trading prisoners.[5]:130–134 Booth enrolled Samuel Arnold, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael O'Laughlen, Lewis Powell (otherwise called "Lewis Paine"), and John Surratt to help him. Surratt's mom, Mary Surratt, left her bar in Surrattsville, Maryland, and moved to a house in Washington, D.C., where Booth turned into an incessant guest.

However, there is insufficient evidence that shows Booth may have been a rebel agent for the Confederates. Fellow conspirator George Atzerodt made a statement before his trial in 1865 that told of Booth's knowledge of a Confederate plot to blow up the White House. “The theory of Confederate complicity in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln is accepted by several of the current Lincoln assassination historians, scholars, researchers, and writers (Norton).” That may be so, but there is no evidence proving that the Confederates hired Booth, but several resources that show Booth plotted the assassination with co-conspirators, which illustrates the larger

On this night John Wilks Booth intended on killing the vice president Andrew Jackson, the secretary of war Edwin M. Stanton, and successfully assassinated the 16th president of the United States of America. Booth spent 12 days on the run, within those 12 day Samuel Cox ( farmer who provides temporary refuge for Booth and Herold), Richard Garrett ( the farmer in whose barn Booth and Herold are captured), where few of the people who helped Booth during those 12 days. Sergeant Boston Corbett was the union solider who shot Booth. Booth misjudged how people would react he thought he would be seen as a southern hero, but most people saw it as a heinous crime. (O’Reilly 12) (Levison par.

John Wilkes Booth and several alliances were first planning to kidnap Lincoln. If they had succeeded, they would have taken him to Richmond, the capital of the south. But on that night Lincoln never showed up to the drop off point. Two weeks later Richmond had fallen to the union. This all could have changed history at its core.

In 1865, the devastating Civil War was finally brought to a close. With roughly 620,000 casualties, a loss of about 2% of the population, both sides were relieved when the bloodshed was over. After four years of fighting, the Confederacy was defeated and the Union celebrated victory. Nevertheless, 1865 was also the year that Abraham Lincoln was murdered, the assassin, John Wilkes Booth, had been a famous actor throughout the country, but was now known as the President's killer. While most people have heard about John Wilkes Booth murdering the president in school, they have not learned the full story. Many do not know why the actor, who was not even born in one of the eleven states that seceded, had killed the president, and how he was able

John Wilkes Booth and the six other people planned to kidnap Lincoln. As the Civil war entered its final stages John Wilkes Booth and several others made a plan to kidnap President Lincoln (“Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination”). They had planned to take him to Richmond and exchange him for thousands of Confederate Prisoners (Uliano). Lincoln did not arrive where they had prepared to kidnap him, so their plan failed. John Wilkes Booth had planned to kidnap Lincoln before his inauguration. Booth was at Lincoln’s second inauguration just three days before the assassination occurred (“John Wilkes Booth”). President Lincoln was giving a speech about his plans of peace and reconstruction (“The Assassination of the President”). President Lincoln had spoken about some things that John Wilkes Booth had not liked, after President Lincoln had spoken them things John Wilkes Booth had determined that President Lincoln needed to be killed.

Carter is the famous author of “The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln” states that “Even some abolitionists said that Abraham Lincoln was not as anti-slavery as he should have been”. According to Stephen L. Carter Abraham Lincoln was not very committed to anti-slavery before his presidency. But the longer he was in office the more he grew into believed that slavery was not right should be frowned upon. Maybe John Wilkes Booth had caught Lincoln in a lie or even maybe he was a hit man who was sent by the Radical Republican Congress.

The central idea of “The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth” revolves around the assassination of the President. There is some foreshadowing in the part when we see Mr. Booth entered the President’s box. The lines, “The servant who attended Mr. Lincoln said politely, "this is the President's box, sir, no one is permitted to enter." "I am a senator," responded the person, "Mr. Lincoln has sent for me. "