The Hanged Book Report
"Hanged: Mary Surratt & The Plot to Assassinate
Abraham Lincoln" by Sarah Miller
Historical Context
01
Mary Surratt got hanged because people thought she was part of the plot to kill President Abraham Lincoln, even though the evidence against her was debated.
02
Mary Surratts son, John Surratt is friend of the assassin John Wilks Booth, that killed Abraham Lincoln
03
There were 9 prisoners on trial and 4 of them got the death sentence of being hanged
04
Mary Surratt owned and lived in a boarding house in Washington DC. She let anyone come in and she would feed them and give them a room for free.
05
The 3 things that Mary Surratt did that were accused of being a part of the assassination were
1. John Wilkes Booth have frequented her home
2. Mary Surratt delivered a message to John llyod the day of the assassination
3. She claimed to not regonize Lewis Powell on the night of her arrest
06
Mary Surratt is very religous being Catholic and is friends with priests including church feeling like the only safe place.
07
The public needed someone to blame and be angry at for the death of Abraham Lincon so they chose to blame Mary Surratt.
08
The 4 people that got hanged were Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt on July 7, 1875
09
Shortly after the assassination the killer, John Wilkes Booth was shot and died in a burning barn.
10
Marry Surratt during trial in the court wore a black veil to cover her face from the spectaters while they shouted very rude things at her.
THE HISTORICAL RECORD • THE HISTORICAL RECORD • THE HISTORICAL RECORD •
Mary Surratt got hanged because people thought she was part of the plot to kill President Abraham Lincoln, even though the evidence against her was debated.
Key Characters
Mary Surratt
Mary Surratt was the owner of a Washington, D.C. boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and his allies met. She was accused of helping plan the plot to kill President Abraham Lincoln and became the first woman the U.S. government executed.
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was a famous American stage actor and Confederate sympathizer who strongly opposed Abraham Lincoln and the Union cause. On April 14, 1865, he assassinated President Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and was killed by Union soldiers 12 days later while fleeing capture.
President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, leading the nation through the Civil War and issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared enslaved people in Confederate states to be free.
THE
PROCEEDINGS
THE CHARGES
Mary Surrat was one of eight people tried for conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. She was convicted largely on the testamony of John Lloyd and Louis Weichmann. Lloyd leased a tavern from Surratt while Weichmann was one of her tenants.
THE VERDICT
The military tribunal found her guilty on all charges but two. A death sentence required six of the nine votes of the judges. Surratt was sentenced to death, the first woman executed by the federal government
THE AFTERMATH
Over 150 years after Mary Surratt's death, debate still rages.
John Surratt's Quote
"Knowing that she was entirely innocent of any connection with the so-called conspiracy, though her sympathies were undeniably with the Confederacy, I could not imagine she was in any danger. I did not dream of the intense bitterness and prejudice that was manifested in her trial."