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