How Is Mary Surratt Guilty

Mary Surratt was accused of being involved in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. She was also the first woman in the United States history to be given the death penalty. She was one of John Wilkes good friends, the man who killed Abraham Lincoln. He lived in a boarding house owned by Mary Surratt. Although Ms. Surratt was convicted and hanged for her involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, I believe she was guilty but disagree with her being Convicted to death and hung.

Mary Surratt was raised and educated at a Catholic female college. She had two brothers John Jenkins, born 1822, She also had another brother James Jenkins, born 1825. Her father died when she was very young, he also owned a tobacco plantation

Mary Surratt met a man named John Harrison Surratt, she married him n 1839 when she was 19 years old. She had three children named Isaac, Elizabeth and John Jr. Mary and her husband ran a very successful tavern in the county in the early 1850s. The area businesses owned by Mary Surratt was named Surrattsville which today is known as Maryland. Maryland was one of the states known to have slaves. The Surratt’s lived in Maryland and owned slaves to help them keep up their business. When Mary’s husband died she couldn’t run the business by herself so she used slaves to help her run the tavern. The North and South became more and more divided over the issue of slavery during the 1850s, the Surratt family, like other people in the surrounding areas, felt a growing commitment to the southern life. Maryland did not withdraw from the Union like other southern states did between 1860 and 1861. This left many families feeling stuck in a Union state with Confederate pity and misfortune. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Mary’s older son left Maryland to fight for the Confederacy. Her younger son John became an informant for the Confederate Army. He

During the Civil War, Mary’s Surratt family views grew stronger. They became known as Confederate supporters and the tavern became known as a safe place for people who held similar views. When Mary’s husband died, he left her with a lot of debt. Mary had to deal with all the money problems which her husband left her with. Her daughter Anna had to move from Surrattsville to another property they owned in Washington, DC and began renting rooms out to tenants in 1864.

Mary Surratt opened the boarding house in Washington, DC where they all meet the mastermind to the assignation plot. It was during this time that John Surratt, who frequently stayed at his mother’s place when he was not running messages for the Confederate army, became friends with John Wilkes Booth. John was a famous actor and loyal supporter of the South. Mr. Booth soon became a regular visitor at Mary Surratt’s boarding house. John was a part in Booth’s original plan to hijack Abraham Lincoln’s carriage and hold the president hostage until he released Confederate prisoners of war so the South’s dwindling army could be replenished and could continue fighting. When Booth’s kidnapping plan failed, he decided to kill President Abraham Lincoln. John Surratt was so involved