The Civil War Era Catholic Press on the Trial and Execution of Mary Surratt
On July 7, 1865, after a controversial trial lasting nearly two months, Mrs. Mary Surratt, a convert to and devout practitioner of Roman Catholicism, was executed for her involvement with John Wilkes Booth and several co-conspirators in the murder of Abraham Lincoln. What did Catholics of her time t...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
American Catholic Historical Society
2005
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| In: |
American catholic studies
Year: 2005, Volume: 116, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-27 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | On July 7, 1865, after a controversial trial lasting nearly two months, Mrs. Mary Surratt, a convert to and devout practitioner of Roman Catholicism, was executed for her involvement with John Wilkes Booth and several co-conspirators in the murder of Abraham Lincoln. What did Catholics of her time think about her fate? Did her Catholic identity win her automatic sympathy from them? Did sectional loyalty trump religious confraternity? Did Victorian sensibilities toward womanhood influence their responses? Did fear of "guilt by association" mute any criticisms they had? To this day, a controversy over her guilt still endures. In the years following her death, and now into the twenty-first century, some Catholics (and others) have aggressively asserted her innocence, viewing Mrs. Surratt as both a martyr to Yankee vindictiveness and a symbol of the Protestant North's contempt for her religion. In time, this characterization of her situation became the accepted assessment of things: that Catholics were united in squarely condemning both the Military Commission that sentenced her and the president who approved her execution over its recommendation for leniency. A careful reading of Catholic newspapers contemporary with the events of the spring and summer of 1865, however, reveal that American Catholics were far more diverse in their opinions of Mrs. Surratt than was previously believed. In this article, I will document the responses to the fate of Mrs. Surratt as recorded by some of her contemporary co-religionists, those in the Catholic press. |
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| ISSN: | 2161-8534 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American catholic studies
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