The Assassin's Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Lincoln

Abstract

September/October 2008 Historically Speaking The Assassin's Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Lincoln* Kate Larson At 1:22 p.m. onJuly 7, 1865, forty-three-yearold Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt was hanged for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to murder President Abraham Lincoln. She would be the first woman ever executed by the United States government. By the summer of 1865 practically every American knew who Mary Surratt was. To them she was either a hard-hearted, manipulative co-conspirator who aided in the plan to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, or an innocent woman trapped in Booth's murderous web and subjected to a vengeful and bloodthirsty military tribunal. Hanged with three male co-conspirators beside her, Mary's deadly punishment sent Shockwaves around the nation. Today, nearly 150 years later, few Americans know her story and still fewer recognize her name. Mother, widow, businesswoman, and a deeply pious Catholic, Mary Surratt seemed an unlikely assassin's accomplice . Until now, the reasons behind her choice to participate in such a deadly scheme have gone relatively unexplored. Lookingback into Mary's past, however, one might find the seeds of rebelliousness and disloyalty nurtured in a fertile rebel community. From her birth and upbringing in a modest slaveholding family in a small Maryland town, to her conversion to Catholicism (made much of during and after her trial), and her early marriage to an alcoholic ten years her senior, Mary's life story seems unremarkable in its detail. But clues to her fateful decision to befriend and support Lincoln's murderer may be found in the deep disruptions brought on by the Civil War and her husband's sudden death in 1862. Left with his massive debts to pay off, Mary may have discovered a strategy for survival: providing a safe haven for Confederate couriers, spies, and ultimately, assassins. During the unseasonably hot weeks of May and June 1865, dramatic newspaper reports of Mary's trial fed a growing public appetite for revenge and retribution for Lincoln's assassination. During the four-week trial, which included the simultaneous prosecution of seven other Booth accomplices, daily news reports from the courtroom exposed the public to the depth of the conspiracy to kill Lincoln and Mary's central role in the plot. By the middle of June, when the trial was winding down, most Amer- * From the book TheAssassin'sAccomplice by Kate Larson. Reprinted by arrangement with Basic Books (www.basicbooks.com), a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2008. icans believed Mary was guilty, convinced that the cold, manipulative female co-conspirator had aided John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators. The northern press had little sympathy for Mary Surratt during the highly publicized trial. At first, she was portrayed as a willing accomplice in the conspiracy . Some papers described Surratt in almost caricature fashion. An "Amazon" (she was about five feet four inches tall and of medium build), they wrote, with black eyes and a small mouth—both attributes , according to the press, of a criminal face. Many of the leading newspapers of the day heartily supported the military tribunal's verdict of guilty. Mother, widow, businesswoman, and a deeply pious Catholic, Mary Surratt seemed an unlikely assassin's accomplice. The Union had long suffered from the skillful spying perpetrated by cunning and seductive female Confederate agents, leaving little room for empathy for Surratt. To Northerners, her sex and mature age only amplified the perceived depravity of the southern character. But Surratt's punishment shocked the nation. Within hours of her hanging, people all across the country expressed horror and revulsion over her death. Days later, public sentiment began to change dramatically. For some Americans, Mary Surratt was an innocent woman trapped in Booth's murderous web, then subjected to a vengeful and bloodthirsty federal military tribunal. Her supporters accused the military tribunal that tried her and the other co-conspirators with illegally prosecuting civilians. Eager news reporters featured these accusations in their papers, claiming that the military court suppressed exculpatory evidence and allowed false testimony given by government witnesses against Mary to go unchallenged. Sympathy forMary increased dramatically in the weeks after her execution, bolstering what would...