- Joined
- Oct 10, 2012
- Location
- Mt. Jackson, Va
Taken from the Ford's Theater National Historic Site Facebook page - June 28, 2021:
John Wilkes Booth presumed that he would be heralded as a hero by many, for assassinating President #AbrahamLincoln. After the murder, during his 12 days on the run, he wrote sporadically in a small leather datebook that he had in his possession. There he recorded his personal feelings about his own actions, and his reactions to public sentiment that he was reading from newspapers around the country. These entries reveal the progression of his thoughts as he realized that he was not seen as a hero, but instead was being condemned as a cowardly villain by people throughout a devastated nation.
Booth wrote, “After being hunted like a dog through swamps, woods, and last night being chased by gun-boats till we I was forced to return wet cold and starving, with every man’s hand, against me. I am here in despair. And why; For doing what Brutus was honored for. What made Tell a Hero. And yet I for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew. Am looked upon as a common, cutthroat.”
For more, and for the complete transcript of Booth’s diary: https://bit.ly/3w3DbhQ
#MuseumMonday
#FordsTheatreNPS
Image: Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site Museum Collection [FOTH 3221], diary of John Wilkes Booth, opened to the first entry after the assassination, April 14, 1865.
John Wilkes Booth presumed that he would be heralded as a hero by many, for assassinating President #AbrahamLincoln. After the murder, during his 12 days on the run, he wrote sporadically in a small leather datebook that he had in his possession. There he recorded his personal feelings about his own actions, and his reactions to public sentiment that he was reading from newspapers around the country. These entries reveal the progression of his thoughts as he realized that he was not seen as a hero, but instead was being condemned as a cowardly villain by people throughout a devastated nation.
Booth wrote, “After being hunted like a dog through swamps, woods, and last night being chased by gun-boats till we I was forced to return wet cold and starving, with every man’s hand, against me. I am here in despair. And why; For doing what Brutus was honored for. What made Tell a Hero. And yet I for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew. Am looked upon as a common, cutthroat.”
For more, and for the complete transcript of Booth’s diary: https://bit.ly/3w3DbhQ
#MuseumMonday
#FordsTheatreNPS
Image: Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site Museum Collection [FOTH 3221], diary of John Wilkes Booth, opened to the first entry after the assassination, April 14, 1865.