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Mary Elizabeth Surratt: Personal Narrative

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On April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed in Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth. On July 7, 1865, Mary Elizabeth Surratt was hanged with charges of aiding the assassins. Owner of a boarding house in Washington D.C. during the Civil War, she was thought to have previously owned a safe house for the Confederates underground. Though she had a quiet childhood and normal marriage, her life took an unexpected turn for the worse by the year of 1861. Surratt was a Confederate sympathizer and often housed rebel spies, which did not help her in the trial. And when the President was killed, she was completely and utterly betrayed by her son and sentenced to hang. Overall, Mary Surratt lead a simple life, but is remembered with the dubious distinction as the first woman to be executed by the U.S. government. …show more content…

When her father died in 1825, her mother inherited all his land. She was married to John Surratt in 1840 when she was 20, and they had three children, Issac, Anna, and John, jr. She was a faithful catholic and believed in the church above all costs, as did John. They moved from place to place, never settling on one piece of land for more than a few years. Eventually, John Surratt began to drink and became increasingly violent and unstable. “ As her husband drank more, Mary prayed harder.” (Jones 12) Mary Surratt was very loyal to the church, and her faith helped her when she was in troubling times. When he died in 1862 from a stroke, Mary inherited his estate and their family was launched into financial difficulties. Though she had a regular upbringing, later in life she was challenged with many

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Mary Surratt should have been executed because she lied to the authorities. Mary lied to the authorities about knowing the people who shot Lincoln. Mary is guilty for Lincoln assassination because she was involved with the people who killed Lincoln and gave them weapons. In source 3, it says “I want you to have those shooting irons ready.” That meant that she had weapons and told the people who shot Lincoln to get them ready.

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Mary was also a Confederate secret agent. When Booth got to the boarding house, he gave Mary a package that he just so happened to be carrying with him at the time. He told her that he would be back that night, on his way out of Washington, to collect his package along with his guns, ammunition, with other supplies that her son had hidden there for Booth. Booth decided to use a .44 caliber, single shot, muzzle-loading pistol as his weapon of choice along with a knife that he kept in his pocket. Before Booth left for the theater he wrote a letter to whoever may find it saying that he had killed Lincoln, along with all of the people’s name who was helping him with his side

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Why Mary Surratt didn’t deserve the death sentence Mary Surratt wasn’t innocent but wrongly put to death. Evidence used against Mary surratt was sightings of confederates at her house,when it really wasn’t her fault. According to source two, her son john Jr.was a known confederate spy ,and similar characters frequented her boarding house. This piece of information taken from source shows that even if she weren’t involved with any conspiracy she would automatically have been linked to the confederates do to her sons and their connections. Mary Surratt’s boarding house was used as a refugee for blockade runners (source 2).

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In 1839, she married 27 year old John Surratt Sr. Surratt who was reported to be a mean drunk who beat his 16 year old wife regularly. The couple tried a number of occupations over the next twenty years. They owned a tavern and boarding house which was the last occupation they tried. When the civil war broke out John was a student at St. Charles college.

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Title Mary Surratt should have been executed. Mary Surratt was guilty because there is evidence of her supplying the criminals and having a very suspicious behavior. Mary Surratt's behavior was very weird and suspicious. Mary Surratt was not shocked at the news of Abraham's murder but when the officials visited her a second time her response was dramatically different and appeared shocked at the news. She pretended to not have heard the news which is lying and if she was innocent why would she need to lie to cops.

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Finding herself in the spotlight during a tense and bloody war, Mary Lincoln faced the unfortunate coincidence of being both southern born and the wife of a Unionist leader. “An obvious point of attack upon a First Lady with relatives fighting on the Confederate side was disloyalty. She was accused of acting as a rebel spy,” Ruth Painter describes as she further explains how the hatred and spite targeted at Mary Lincoln was reserved specifically for traitors. In addition, William Evans comments how, “the extreme elements in the South, on the other hand, hated Mrs. Lincoln because, in point of fact she was intensely loyal to her husband and to the Union cause.” Just as one feels the effects of a physical wound, so was Mary Lincoln seared by

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President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on the evening of April 14, 1865 at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D. C. He was accompanied by his wife, Mary Lincoln, and Major Henry Rathbone and Miss Clara Harris, his future fiancee; the Lincoln’s were in a relatively good mood having ended the civil war. The four sat together in a private balcony box. The murderer, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor of that play, hated Lincoln’s reforms. At around 10:00 pm, when the play was ending, Booth had walked past Major Henry Rathbone and shot Lincoln in the head. He then cut Rathbone’s arm and lept off to the stage, protecting himself and fleeing from the crime scene.

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Her mother died shortly after her birth leaving her father to care for her and her half-sister, Fanny Imlay. The dynamic of her family soon changed when her father remarried. Mary was treated poorly by her new stepmother, and her quality of life was less than satisfactory. Her step-siblings were allowed to receive an education while Mary stayed at home. She found comfort in reading, and created stories in her father’s library.

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