Born May 10, 1838
Bel Air, Maryland
Died April 26, 1865
Port Royal, Virginia

Stage actor and Southern sympathizer who
assassinated President Abraham Lincoln

"Sic semper tyrannis!

[Thus always to tyrants!]"

John Wilkes Booth. (Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.)

John Wilkes Booth was a fanatical supporter of the Confederate cause during the Civil War. On April 14, 1865—as people throughout the North celebrated the end of the conflict—Booth made a deranged (insane) attempt to strike one final blow for the South. He shot Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865; see entry) as the president sat watching a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln died the following day. Although Booth and his accomplices (partners in crime) were soon captured, the assassination sent shock waves through the country. Lincoln's violent death made it much more difficult for the North and South to resolve their differences after the war...