Mary Surratt
Mary Surratt, born Mary Elizabeth Jenkins in 1823 in Maryland, is a historically significant figure known for her involvement in the aftermath of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. After marrying John Harrison Surratt and raising three children, Mary became a boarding house operator in Washington, D.C., where she mingled with various conspirators, including John Wilkes Booth. Following Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, Mary was arrested and accused of conspiring with Booth and others. Her trial was marked by questions regarding her guilt, the reliability of witnesses, particularly under duress, and the legality of a military trial for a civilian. In a controversial decision, she was sentenced to death and executed on July 7, 1865, making her the first woman in American history to receive such a sentence. Surratt's case has sparked ongoing debates about her innocence and the judicial processes of the time, drawing attention to the complexities of justice in a post-Civil War America.
Mary Surratt
- Born: May or June 1823
- Birthplace: Near Waterloo, Maryland
- Died: July 7, 1865
- Place of death: Washington, D.C
American boardinghouse operator
Major offense: Conspiracy and aiding and assisting with the escape of the assassins of President Abraham Lincoln
Active: October, 1864-April, 1865
Locale: Washington, D.C.
Sentence: Death by hanging
Early Life
Born in May or June of 1823 near Waterloo, Maryland, Mary Elizabeth Jenkins, known to history as Mary Surratt (suh-RAT), received a better education than was typical for girls during this era. Her mother enrolled her in a Roman Catholic school when she was twelve, and she became Catholic. In 1840, at age seventeen, Mary married John Harrison Surratt, a man eleven years her senior. Their first home was on land that John’s father had inherited from his foster parents, located in Oxon Hill (later the Congress Heights section of Washington, D.C.). Three children were born to the couple: Isaac Douglas, Elizabeth Susanna (Anna), and John Harrison, Jr. After Mary and John’s house burned in 1851, John built a home/tavern and post office on 287 acres of land in Prince George’s County in a community later called Surrattsville. In August, 1862, when Mary was thirty-nine, she found her husband dead.
Criminal Career
About two years after Surratt was widowed, she rented out the tavern site to John Lloyd and moved to a house at 541 High Street in Washington, D.C. There, she began taking in boarders to supplement her income. Among the boarders or frequent visitors was an actor, John Wilkes Booth, as well as Louis Weichmann and others who later would be named as conspirators in the death of President Abraham Lincoln. Between October, 1864, and April 14, 1865, the day of Lincoln’s assassination, several suspect actions occurred: private conversations between Surratt, Booth, Weichmann, and Lewis Powell (also known as Lewis Payne); Surratt questioning her son John about the men who had been coming to the house, in turn expressing her uneasiness that something was going on; Surratt hiring a buggy on April 14 to deliver a small package (later said to be Booth’s field glasses) to Lloyd and allegedly telling him that “the shooting irons” that had been delivered there some weeks before would soon be needed; and the discovery of a picture of Booth behind another picture that Weichmann had given to Surratt’s daughter Anna.
Following the assassination of Lincoln on April 14, 1865, Booth and David E. Herold made a stop at the tavern owned by Surratt. Lloyd is reported to have given the men whiskey, firearms, and the field glasses that Booth had stored at the location. On Monday, April 17, 1865, two Army officers and two detectives came to the Surratt house to question Surratt. While Major H. W. Smith was there, a stranger appeared who told Major Smith that he had come to dig a gutter for Surratt, as requested. The man was Powell, who had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward on the same night as Lincoln’s assassination and whom witnesses placed in the company of Surratt in the past. When Major Smith asked her if she had seen the man before, Surratt swore that she had not. Defenders of Surratt insisted that she was not lying; rather, because of her poor eyesight, she did not recognize him. Major Smith did not believe the explanations.
Legal Action and Outcome
Not satisfied with Surratt’s answers to his questioning and noting that other suspect persons appeared to be frequenting the boardinghouse, authorities took Surratt to police headquarters for further questioning and then to the Old Capitol Prison. Her defense attorney, Reverdy Johnson, appeared only twice during the trial. Two junior attorneys, Frederick A. Aiken and John Wesley Clampitt, were both in their mid-twenties and were inexperienced; it was the first major case for both men. Among several witnesses brought in to give testimony was Lloyd, who did not say anything against Surratt until he was suspended by his thumbs and the pain was unbearable; thereafter, he provided some of the most damaging evidence against her.
On April 30, Surratt was transferred to the Old Arsenal Penitentiary, where she stood trial along with seven others accused of conspiracy. In spite of some impassioned arguments in her defense, Surratt and three others—George A. Atzerodt, Herold, and Powell—were sentenced to death by hanging; the other prisoners, Samuel Arnold, Samuel A. Mudd, Edward Spangler, and Michael O’Laughlin, received sentences of hard labor at the Penitentiary of Albany, New York. Of the nine members of the Military Commission, five entered a plea for mercy to President Andrew Johnson. After he ordered Surratt’s execution, he denied having seen the request. Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865.
Impact
Mary Jenkins Surratt made history as the first woman in American history to be given a death sentence. Throughout the years following the trial, questions have been raised both about Surratt’s innocence or guilt and about the issue of the appropriateness of a military trial for a civilian. Historians have also examined the extent to which her inexperienced defense lawyers contributed to her conviction, as well as the reliability of the testimony of Lloyd: He was a known alcoholic and his testimony against Surratt may well have been brought forth by the torture to which he was subjected.
Bibliography
Chamlee, Roy Z., Jr. Lincoln’s Assassins: A Complete Account of Their Capture, Trial, and Punishment. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1990. Comprehensive treatment of the alleged conspirators and others less directly involved in the assassination plot.
Leonard, Elizabeth D. Lincoln’s Avengers: Justice, Revenge, and Reunion After the Civil War. New York: Norton, 2004. Focuses largely on Advocate General Joseph Holt, the man who led the investigation and the prosecution of Surratt and other alleged conspirators. The author concludes that Surratt’s guilt was questionable and that Holt was unduly eager to have her hanged.
Steers, Edward, Jr., ed. The Trial: The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003. Twelve essays discuss various aspects of the conspiracy cases, such as the legality of a military trial, the development of the cases prior to trial, and the trials of each of the accused. Contains a reprint of the complete record of the military tribunal that convicted Surratt and the seven other alleged conspirators.
Trindal, Elizabeth Steger. Mary Surratt: An American Tragedy. Gretna, La.: Pelican, 1996. The author, who researched Surratt for fifteen years, is convinced that Surratt was innocent of conspiracy. Includes copious facts and interjects probable actions or thoughts when facts about personal details in Surratt’s life are not known.