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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who was the only audience member at Ford's Theater the night of the assassination to chase after John Wilkes Booth after the shooting?
(a) Major Rathbone.
(b) Mary Todd Lincoln.
(c) Laura Keene.
(d) Joseph Stewart.

2. Who sent a letter to the proprietors of the Ford Theater announcing the Lincolns' intention to attend the play at the theater that night?
(a) John Wilkes Booth.
(b) General Ulysses S. Grant.
(c) William Seward.
(d) Mary Todd Lincoln.

3. Though it would have been easy for John Wilkes Booth to gain an audience with President Lincoln within the Executive Mansion due to Booth's acting fame, why did he not take that action?
(a) He wanted the dramatic setting of a theater.
(b) He was too scared to use so brazen a method.
(c) He did not see any honor in shooting a man within his own home.
(d) He knew it would be too difficult to escape from the Executive Mansion alive.

4. On the night of April 11th at the Torchlight Parade, what did Lincoln say in his speech regarding African-Americans?
(a) That they should be granted the right to vote.
(b) That they should be free to marry whomever they chose, regardless of race.
(c) That they should each be granted 40 acres and a mule.
(d) That they had waited too long to be freed from slavery.

5. What did David Herold say was a condition of helping Lewis Powell with the plot to assassinate William Seward?
(a) He did not want to kill anybody himself.
(b) He did not want to enact the plot during daylight hours.
(c) He did not want to have to clean up any mess.
(d) He did not want to drive the carriage.

Short Answer Questions

1. What had John Wilkes Booth hidden along the carpet earlier in the day that he then used to barricade the door to the Presidential box behind him?

2. Who was the only actor on stage when Booth made his leap from the balcony?

3. Where in John Wilkes Booth's room at the National Hotel did investigators find a letter outlining the plot against the government?

4. What two items did John Wilkes Booth retrieve from Mary Sarratt's boardinghouse on the night of the assassination attempts?

5. On the afternoon on the day of Lincoln's assassination, what plans did Abraham Lincoln reveal to Mary Todd Lincoln about their future after his second term as president was complete?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of the photo that was taken at Abraham Lincoln's inauguration and that includes John Wilkes Booth?

2. How did the North celebrate when Richmond, Virginia fell to Union forces on April 3, 1865?

3. What qualities of William Seward's situation caused him to chosen by the assassins as the third target in the assassination plot, in addition to Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson?

4. What is James L. Swanson's purpose when he describes John Wilkes Booth's passions as including "the romance of lost causes"? (2)

5. What were the reasons that Dr. Charles Leale wanted to move Abraham Lincoln from the theater, even though he had just proclaimed his wounds sure to be fatal?

6. Who was the only audience member in Ford's Theater to chase after John Wilkes Booth and why did no one else follow him?

7. What tone does James L. Swanson use in second paragraph of Chapter I when he writes, "The very next day, the tyrant Abraham Lincoln had visited his captive prize and had the nerve to sit behind the desk occupied by the first and last president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis"? (2)

8. How was Frederick Seward injured during Lewis Powell's attempt to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward?

9. What methods does James L. Swanson use to convey the chaotic nature of the scene within Ford's Theater after John Wilkes Booth had escaped?

10. How does James L. Swanson demonstrate Fanny Seward's courage and ferocity within the scene of Lewis Powell's attempt to take her father's life?

(see the answer keys)

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