Color:-veqoq6qc2i= john wilkes booth – John Wilkes Booth was an American actor who was a Confederate supporter, and assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in the Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C. on April 14, 1865. Booth was of 19th century acting family coming from maryland area, was an actor himself who was sympathetic towards Confederacy; after getting on stage to utter the assassination of President Lincoln he wept for the recently eradicated slavery in United States.
Initially, Booth and his fellow conspirators planned to only kidnap Lincoln with the intention of helping the Confederate side. They later planned to actually kill him along with the Vice President, Andrew Johnson, and the Secretary of State, William H. Seward. Booth still thought that the Civil War was still ongoing despite the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia under the command of General Robert E. Lee four days prior.
Background And Early Life
John Wilkes Booth’s name will forever be associat with the name of president he killed. Booth must have been familiar with theaters because of his career in acting which is why on the night of the 14th of April in 1865 he went to this stage for another purpose.
Booth born on May 10th, 1838 in Bel Air, Maryland though he had little aced romanANCEd for studies he was an active boy who enjoyed athletics and other co-curricular activities. Both his parents had been and immigrated from England. His father was name Junius and he was a renowne British Shakespearean actor while his mother was Mary Ann Holmes, Junius’s mistress. Booth grew up in Bel Air and later went to Sparks and Cantonsville there he joined theater like his father after completing school in Maryland. He portrayed characters in plays like Richard III in cities on the eastern coast from the year 1855 up to 1865; he got a chance to act as Duke Pescara in the play titled The Apostate and this was perform at Fords Theater in Washington D.C on 18th of March.
The Booth was actively participating in politics in the years preceding and during the Civil War. In his teenage years he was a member of activities of the Know Nothings which was a political party that holds a strong prejudice against immigrants. He supported slavery and had intense dislike towards abolitionists. They got marry in 1859 while he was rehearsing for a play in Richmond he joined a local militia unit so he could travel with them to see the hanging of John Brown. He had an intense hatred of President Lincoln and even had time to publicly announce his displeasure against the Lincoln administration several times. It all reached a climax in the winter of 1864-65, when Booth and several other plotters convened to plot the kidnap, then the murder, of Abraham Lincoln.
John Wilkes Booth Shoots Abraham Lincoln
Federal president Abraham Lincoln is assassinated when he is shot in the head at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D. C. on April 14, 1865. The assassin, actor John Wilkes Booth, cried ‘Sic semper tyrannis! (Thus to tyrants!) The South is avenge!’ before jumping back on to the stage and escapist on a horse. Lincoln died the next morning.
Booth who never left the North during the Civil war because of his Southern sympathies, initially planned to kidnap President Lincoln and transport him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, on the 20 of March 1865 which was the agreed day for the kidnap, the president did not turn up at the venue that Booth and his fellow seven conspirators were hidden. Two weeks later all was over at Richmond and the Confederate army was force to surrender to the Union forces. In April, Confederate armies are virtually on the verge of defeat throughout the South, and Booth devises a desperate scheme to resurrect the Confederacy.
On learning that the President intended to go see the famous Laura Keene in Our American Cousin on April 14 at Ford’s Theater, Booth planned to kill Lincoln along with vice president Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William HH Seward at the same time. Booth and his arronist expected that by assassination of the president and two of his potential successors the U.S. government will be put into a state of paralysis.
However, at about 10 p.m. Booth sneaked into the presidential private theater box and fired at Lincoln’s back of the head, shooting him dead with just one bullet. Despite Booth’s injury in his left leg where he had to jump from Lincoln’s box, he managed to flee Washington.
They removed the president fatally injured to a low building directly across from Ford’s Theater. Shortly after 7 in the morning the next day at about 7, 22 he died making him the first U. S president to be assassinate.
Conclusion
John Wilkes Booth, an American actor, is most infamous for assassinating President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. A Confederate sympathizer, Booth viewed Lincoln’s policies during the Civil War, especially his stance on slavery and efforts to preserve the Union, as a direct threat to the South. His anger and radical beliefs drove him to hatch a plot to kill Lincoln, along with other high-ranking government officials.