Research Paper on John Wilkes Booth

Introduction

It is amazing how the actions of a single individual can affect and change the history of a person. One of the people who has been known to change the history of the United States is John Booth. John Wilkes Booth is clearly known by many for killing President Abraham Lincoln. John Booth was born on tenth May 1838 in a log house in Maryland near Bel Air by his mother Mary Holmes and his father Junius Brutus Booth who was an actor. John Booth was ninth out of the tenth children born to his father and named after the prominent politician known as John Wilkes who was a relative of his father. His elder brother Edwin helped in supervising John Booth's upbringing. Despite being a popular and an athletic boy, John Booth disliked school. Booth attended the Bel Air Academy where he rode on a horse to and from observing what was happening around him. He later moved to Quaker to be in charge of Milton boarding schools for boys which were situated in sparks Maryland. Afterwards, Booth transferred to St. Timothy's Hall whereby the virtue of the school is a military academy, they were required to wear school uniforms and adhere to high discipline standards. John Booth left the military academy within a year when he was 14 years old after his father died.

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The booth family from which John Clarke booth came from was infamously known with the American theatre in the nineteenth century. At that time, there was no name as famous as that of Booth's family (Nottingham 111). From this family came Edwin Booth who was known for being a leading actor in his days. John Clarke's father, Junius Booth was also an actor who had attended the production of Othello at the covenant Garden theatre and displayed remarkable talent. Coming from a family of prominent actors must have played a big role in John Clarke establishing himself in the same industry since the Booth name was already known

While John Booth was schooling at the Milton Boys boarding school, he had a wealth teller read his tribute making it known to him that he would have a good life which would be short-lived an account that is explained by his sister in 'John Wilkes Booth, A sister's memoir' by Asia Booth Clark. By the age of 16 years, John Booth had become interested in theatre. His good looks and famous name paved way for him in the acting industry. He made his first stage breakthrough at 17 years on August 14, 1855, where he had the minor duty of the Noble of Richmond in Richard 3 at Baltimore's Charles Street theatre. John also acted at the Baltimore's Holliday street theatre which belonged to John where the Booth's including his father had acted frequently (Fischer 224). Other theatres in which John Booth acted in include the stock company at the Richmond theatre in Virginia in 1858 where he was given 83 roles to play and became very popular for his energetic performances. By 1860 John had thrived in his acting career and was touring all the great cities in America. Most of John Booth's performances were made unique by his energetic demeanor and acrobatics which entailed leaping upon the stage. He was also an excellent swordsman although it is said that he once cut himself with his own sword.

Booth's first national theatre tour as a renowned main actor happened in the 1960s. By the time 1860 was at its prime, he was playing in great cities such as Boston, Chicago, Alabama, and New York. In October 1860, he was badly shot in his hotel and left for the dead although he recovered. Booth was outspoken and when the civil war began in 1861, he was starring Albany, New York and in his utter liking for the south's secession he called it bravely heroic. The act angered many people to the extent of demanding him to be banned from the acting stage terming his statement as 'reasonable'. The Albany drama critics were kind to him with some praising him for his masterly impressions. Due to the division of the land caused by the civil war, Booth appeared in the union and border states mostly. The last debut of his interim career was made at Ford's on March 18, 1865, when he took the post of Duke Pescara in The Apostate.

John Wilkes booth is also known as a man who killed one of the United States president Abraham Lincoln. Although he had done so many things before this, killing Abraham made his past life to be overlooked around the world today. He was an accomplished actor before him and his associates plotted to kidnap the president. Many have always had this question "why did John Wilkes Booth assassinate Abraham Lincoln?" booth had this believe that President Lincoln was determined to overthrow the constitution and destroy his beloved south. His hatred for Lincoln grew since his father had taught him bad habits of owning slaves and making the whole house depressed. For this reason, after Lincoln's re-election, he planned to kidnap the president and take him to Richmond to ransom for some of the Confederate prisoners who at the time were languishing in the jails (Nottingham 110). Booth had helped to kidnap the president from a group of friends from Washington.

Fischer argues that what led to john booth to kidnap and kill the president is he believed Abraham was an abolitionist and hated him for this (223). Many believe that John was just fanatic but I think he was disappointed that the Confederacy had lost the war and the slavery was ending. This made him very mad and he directed his anger on the president. He might not have planned to kill the president initially but the assassination grew out of kidnapping. They had planned to exchange the prisoners with the president and later return those prisoners to be used in the battlefield. In his mind, he did not the war to end in order to continue with his slavery and this was the main reason why he planned to kidnap the president. The murders decision came after the kidnapping of Lincoln did not make sense (Fischer 225). The Confederate capital had collapsed and general lee confederate army had surrendered leaning Lincoln with no place. The Confederacy was melting in front of john boot which brought a decision to murder Lincoln. The Confederacy would also hardly sanction murder since most of them were conventional people.

In the kidnapping of the Lincoln, the booth had learned that he would attend a performance at Ford's theatre and he had a plan in mind to make his move. Since he was familiar with theatre he knew about all entrances and exits. He made his way toward the president since he had no security during the night. He got inside the presidential bot and shot Lincoln. Booth escaped after shooting Lincoln in the back of his horse. This was a good escape although he broke his leg in his leap from the stage. Booth was on the run for 12days in southern Maryland and Virginia. He was probably thinking that all his plans to kidnap the president and to continue with the war have failed. This made him kill the president and achieve nothing. Although he was to go down as the person who killed the president I don't think booth was happy with how thing turned out, he knew he would not be on the run for so long since the federal troops were searching for him day and night. He knew that his days were coming to an end and he could only hide. Those who conspired with him were captured except John Surratt who is believed to have fled to Canada. Finally, the troops caught up with the booth on April 26. He was hiding in the burn with his friend Herold. The troops gave them the option to surrender before burning the burn to the ground. Herold surrendered but the booth was shot and killed in the burning burn.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the booth was a famous prominent actor but he died as an infamous assassin. This has made his life to be forgotten by many despites him coming from a great family. Many who knew john booth said that he had the magnetism and power in his eyes. I believe he would have come to a powerful person if he did not the decision of shooting the president. He let his emotions mislead him where he became so angry with Lincoln and hatred grew to an assassination. Booth died a painful death after being shot in the neck and became the first person to assassinate an American president.

References

Booth, John Wilkes. Right Or Wrong, God Judge Me: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth. University of Illinois Press, 2000.

Fischer, R. A. "John Wilkes Booth: A sister's memoir by Asia Booth Clark." (1998): 227-229.

Nottingham, Theodore J. The Untold Story of John Wilkes Booth. BookBaby, 2010