Mary Surratt: An American Tragedy

by Elizabeth Steger Trindal, Mary E. Trindal

Elizabeth Steger Trindal worked fifteen years to chronicle the life of this little known but important figure in American history. Mary Surratt's son, John Surratt, was believed to have acted in a plot with John Wilkes Booth and others to not only murder the president but also kill Secretary of State Seward. John Surratt was out of the country, and Booth yet to be apprehended. But Mary and others were arrested in connection with the assassinationof the president. Eventually they were brought to trial by a military commission. Tried by a military tribunal despite protests by her defense lawyers that it was illegal to try a civilian before a military court, Mary and three others were tried for the crime of conspiring with Booth and found guilty. Many prominent citizens pleaded with President Andrew Johnson for a stay of Mary's execution. He steadfastly refused. On July 7, 1865, Mary Surratt along with the other accused assassins was hanged. In its grief over the death of President Lincoln did America condemn an innocent woman die? This moving account will no doubt elicit new debate on the subject of the Civil War and reveal a new perspective on the events surrounding Lincoln's assassination.

Genres: American History, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1996

Reviews

[Susan]

I didn't find this a very convincing case for Mary Surratt's innocence, though I think one could be made. Kate Clifford Larson in her own book about Surratt does a better job of sifting through the evidence, though she reaches a different conclusion. This book did have interesting details about Surratt's life and family, but it needed better editing. The frequent use of exclamation points whenever the author wanted to make an important point was very distracting!

[Mary Liebetrau · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was given to me by a friend. I knew very little about Mary prior to reading this book. It was difficult to read due to the style of writing. I missed some of the details but understood the big picture which led to a sad outcome. Mary was the first woman hung in the United States but justice was not done. I plan some day to go to her grave and pray for her perpetual peace.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very well researched book. There are copious amounts of notes. Her style is a little different from other biographies that I have read. It is quite obvious that the author is convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mary Surratt was innocent of any wrong doing. She does a nice job presenting the case although I got bogged down in ALL the names. There were several characters introduced during the first half of the book that do not play any type of role in the trial portion of Mary's life. In my mind, those people and the vast amount of information surrounding them could have been left out.

The only other issue I really had with the book was the amount of speculation put into it. She speculates on what people might have been thinking, or perhaps what they were saying. While some speculation is ok, even perhaps necessary, it was too much.

The ending of the book made my heart hurt. I don't see how you can read this book and not feel that an innocent woman was hanged.

All in all good read about a tragic figure in American history.

[Zachary Miller · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lost Cause writing and argument. The authors view of the “Southern Cause” (slavery) and the rest of the South as an idealized, peaceful, happy society is what makes Surratt innocent-not the evidence found against her.

The author uses too many exclamations, “May have, probably,” and LOVES to compare Northern factory work, what she called “wage slaves” to actual slavery. Even more bizarre, she claims that wage slavery in the north was worst than actual slavery in the South—that is the most ignorant thing I’ve ever typed out.

Overall, only read this if you want to see a modern view of the Lost Cause and see how neo Confederates defend Surratt who “kept the nest that hatched the egg.”

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

All in all, a very informative piece about a period in our history that I'm not sure that we as Americans should be proud of. However, I'm not sure that I agree with Ms. Trindal's hypothesis. Mrs. Surratt's fate being decided by a military tribunal contrary to our Constitution is one major point. Ms. Trindal admits there was in place Congressional legislation that allowed the events of the day to be decided by the military. There is lots of supposition, and a barrel-full of annoying exclamation marks. Notwithstanding, I feel that I learned a great deal from the book, and am inspired to dig a little deeper in this most interesting historical event.

[Laverne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book even though it was written in the older way of history books. In other words, gave lots of fact; only time people "talked" was when the author had something that documented their words. I enjoy history and the civil war era is one of my favorites and this particular story has been one I've wanted more information on for a long time. Did she conspire or didn't she?? We probably all have our own idea on that.

[Jayme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like I said, I read a bunch of Mary Surratt books for my 6th grade history project, and I just remembered these because of my English Research Paper.