{"id":34437,"date":"2024-03-22T10:02:03","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T09:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=263862"},"modified":"2024-03-22T11:11:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T10:11:39","slug":"the-real-history-of-mary-surratts-controversial-role-in-the-lincoln-conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/the-real-history-of-mary-surratts-controversial-role-in-the-lincoln-conspiracy\/","title":{"rendered":"The real history of Mary Surratt\u2019s controversial role in the Lincoln conspiracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary Surratt\u2019s involvement in the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, as seen in the new Apple TV+ series Manhunt, is fraught with controversy and ambiguity. What is the complicated truth about her role in the plot, how much did she know, and was she really guilty? <\/p>

By James Osborne\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 22 March 2024 at 09:02 AM<\/p>

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Mary Surratt is known for her contentious role in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln<\/a>, in 1865. Prior to Lincoln\u2019s murder, Surratt would have been regarded as an ordinary woman living a typical middle-class existence. However, her implication in John Wilkes Booth<\/a>\u2019s conspiracy to attack several members of the Union government \u2013 as well as Abraham Lincoln \u2013 led to Surratt becoming the first woman to be executed by the federal government in the United States.<\/p>\n

Now, with the release of Apple TV+ historical drama Manhunt<\/em>, a seven-part series focussing on the immediate aftermath of Lincoln\u2019s assassination<\/a> at the effective end of the American Civil War<\/a> and the pursuit of the conspirators by officials including Edwin Stanton<\/a>, we explore the true story of Mary Surratt\u2019s role in the conspiracy, including the ambiguity as to her guilt.<\/p>\n

The true story of Mary Surratt\u2019s involvement in the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln<\/h2>\n

Mary Surratt, born in the early 1820s, was a widow who owned a boarding house in Washington DC. She had moved there in 1864, after encountering substantial financial difficulties following the death of her husband in 1862. Her boarding house was used by John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators to plot the abduction and assassination of President Lincoln, and by Confederate agents more broadly.<\/p>\n

However, it wasn\u2019t the conspirators\u2019 use of Surratt\u2019s boarding house as a place to organise themselves that condemned Surratt. Rather, it was her close personal connections to the conspirators, quotes attributed to her, along with her suspicious activity, that established her involvement in the plot.<\/p>\n

Mary Surratt\u2019s son, John Surrat Jr, was a confidant of John Wilkes Booth, and he introduced Booth to his mother. She saw Booth regularly coming in and out of her boarding house, which became a hive of Confederate activity.<\/p>\n

Additional evidence against Mary Surratt, in the trial that led to her conviction and eventual death, further cemented her as a figure who was involved with the conspiracy.<\/p>\n