The Weapon that Killed a Hero: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

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On April 9, 1865 Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia officially marking the end of the civil war. The end of the war did not sit well with many southern sympathizers. There was one guest that went to both Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address and his last speech on reconstruction, that guest was watching Lincoln’s actions very closely and had, in fact been following him for a long time. Booth assassinated Lincoln at Ford’s Theater on
John Wilkes Booth was the ninth of ten children to his father Junius Booth. The Booth family had a history in acting and many were famous celebrities. John Wilkes Booth made his debut at the age of seventeen. His first act was performing in a production of Richard III .The Booth family owned a farm in Bel Air, Maryland and owned multiple slaves. The fact that the Booth family owned slaves shows that John Booth had grown up with the same mentality as a southern slave owner, effectively causing him to become a southern sympathizer. Considering the fact that Booth was a southern sympathizer it makes sense that he had hated Lincoln. His political views were essentially the opposite of Lincoln, whereas Booth supported the institution of slavery and Lincoln staunchly opposed it.
Unlike John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln did not come from a wealthy family. In fact, Lincoln was born on a poor farm in Kentucky where he was forced to do manual labor for his father. Lincoln however, did not want to spend his life doing manual labor for a very small amount of income. He wanted better for himself, and essentially taught himself how to read. Once Lincoln had learned how to read it enabled him to become someone of high s...

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... How exactly would they do this? The staff and students work to advance life in the area through their teaching, research, and service. Lincoln may be gone but his legacy will live on forever.

Works Cited

Flayderman, Norm. Flayderman's Guide to Antique American Firearms ... and Their Values.
Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2001. Print.
Gienapp, William E. Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography. New York:
Oxford UP, 2002. Print.
"Mary Todd Lincoln." EHistory. Ohio State University. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
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Schehl, Sally A. and Carlo J. Rosati. “The Booth Deringer: Genuine Artifact or Replica?”
Forensic Science Communications 3.1 (January 2001).
Smith, Richard N. "Deringer." Ford's Theatre. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
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