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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the name of the prison where all of the assassination co-conspirators were sent once captured?

2. What signal did Captain Samuel Cox tell David Herold and John Wilkes Booth that someone they could trust would use as they approached the forest hiding place?

3. What sound did John Wilkes Booth hear during Thomas Jones' visit to the forest hideout that terrified him?

4. What color ribbons did people wear as they expressed their grief over Abraham Lincoln's assassination?

5. Who became President of the United States upon Abraham Lincoln's death?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the reason for Andrew Johnson's lack of a formal public inaugural address upon his ascendency to the presidency?

2. What is James L. Swanson's purpose in including the detail, "He was too far from Washington to hear the ringing bells of the city's churches tolling in mourning," (60) when describing John Wikes Booth's arrival at the farm of Dr. Samuel Mudd?

3. When James L. Swanson states that John Wilkes Booth had planned in detail the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and his escape from the theater itself, but not much beyond that, what details does he use to support his point?

4. What elements of the crime scene investigation mirror modern forensic methods used today?

5. To what cause does James L. Swanson attribute the decision by doctors to perform an autopsy on Abraham Lincoln after his death?

6. Though John Wilkes Booth was angry at the newspapers for suppressing his written explanation for why he had killed Abraham Lincoln that he had given to his actor friend, what was the truth surrounding why his letter had not been published?

7. Why did authorities feel that they had such an airtight case against John Wilkes Booth for killing Abraham Lincoln if they were ever able to bring him to justice in a court of law?

8. What was it about the newspapers brought to him by Thomas Jones that stunned John Wilkes Booth while he was hiding in the pine thicket?

9. What key suggestion did Thomas Jones offer to John Wilkes Booth and David Herold that ended up frustrating any leads gained within the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth?

10. What was Dr. Samuel Mudd's response when he learned that Abraham Lincoln had been killed and that John Wilkes Booth had been the assassin?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine James L. Swanson's use of characterization methods to portray Abraham Lincoln. How does he help the reader to know who Abraham Lincoln was as a person, both before and after his murder? What effect do these characterization methods have on the book's inherent themes and messages? Use concrete details from the text to support your claims.

Essay Topic 2

Examine the dichotomy between John Wilkes Booth's expectations of the effect his assassination of President Lincoln would have on the country, with the events that actually unfolded and how his act was viewed in years to come. Support your analytical points with textual evidence from the book.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author's decision to include a variety of primary documents within the text. What purpose did he have when including images of real documents such as newspaper clippings, photographs, pamphlets, and other ephemera? Back up your strong, specific claim about the author's use of primary documents with concrete details from the ephemera he includes in the book.

(see the answer keys)

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