John W. Booth Research Paper

Who was John Wilkes Booth and what was he most famous for? John W. Booth was born near Bel Air in Maryland, United States on May 10, 1838 and died April 26, 1865 at a young age of 26. He was born into a family of ten children with being the ninth child. Junius Brutus Booth, John’s father; along with his brother Edwin Booth, were both actors. John strived to be the greatest actor he could possibly be showing precise theoretical potential, but having envy to his brother Edwin for acclaiming actor of the day (Encyclopedia Britannica). Junius was a well known actor and was aberrant, with a bad reputation of heavy drinking. John and his siblings were raised on a farm near Bel Air that was worked by the Booth family slaves. At a young age, people would have described John as “disarmingly handsome” (Biography Editors) . To the people …show more content…
Lincoln was part of the anti-slavery Republican Party in the northern states. John knew from then on he and Lincoln would have hatred between each other because Lincoln didn’t support slavery to which Booth had slaves. November 9, 1863, Booth was performing in The Marble Heart at the Ford’s Theatre and watching the play from above, was President Lincoln and one of the women watching the play with Lincoln was the daughter of the Kentucky abolitionist Mary B. Clay. During the play, Mary noticed threats several times to Lincoln from Booth. John actually had three plots against Lincoln; the first was to kidnap Lincoln at the Ford’s Theatre from the presidential box, but President Lincoln had changed plans at last minute. His second was to kidnap Lincoln at his inauguration, but unfortunately was restrained by police and weaseled his way out of it by saying he had “stumbled” (Stacy Conradt). Booth’s last plot to kidnap the president would involve two of his longtime friends, Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlen, Booth wanted to kidnap the president to free certain Union