John Wilkes Booth's Assassination

On November 9, 1863, Abraham Lincoln watched John Wilkes Booth perform in the play Marble Heart from the same box at Ford's Theatre that he would later be assassinated (UMKC). What turned this well-traveled actor into a cold hard assassin? How did commit such a drastic deed single handily? What abled him to escape that theater and evade the authorities for such a long time? Before finding out any of those answers, John Wilkes Booth’s life has to be learned about from the beginning. Booth was born on May 10, 1838, and grew up on a farm near small town Bel Air, Maryland. He was born to the famous actor Junius Booth and grew up with nine siblings. In the 1850’s, when he was in his teens, Booth began involved in politics. He allegedly joined the …show more content…
Booth was passionate about the things he believed in, and that didn’t stop with politics. He believed that killing Lincoln would aid the South and solve many of America’s problems. Although the main reason Booth set his plans in action was because President Lincoln strongly believed in what Booth didn’t, more simply put; Booth despised the man. Committing the act was simple for Booth seeing that at that time security was extremely low, almost nonexistent. Finally, Booth ran from authorities for 12 days, but was caught and shot 50 miles from where the assassinated President Lincoln (Norton). John Wilkes Booth was once a well-liked actor, even considered famous to some. He also was extremely friendly, and many couldn’t even imagine him as an assassin (O’Reilly, 194). Booth, though, was taken to the point of murder, especially after hearing President’s Lincoln’s support towards Negroes and the North. Mainly because he was all for the opposite of Lincoln, white supremacy and slavery (O’Reilly, 92). With one deadly shot, Booth showed what the thought of Lincoln and the North, and with that same shot Booth shocked America and the world. When Booth pulled the trigger, he changed the future of America