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How Did John Wilks Booth Kill Lincoln

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Few events have happened in history that have had the magnitude that the assassination of President Lincoln had. The smallest most uneventful moments can have the most influential impact on society, a prime example of that is John Wilks Booth. In just a few minutes he was able to change the course of history. Abraham Lincoln’s assassination was a malevolent ending to an already horrid event in American history, the civil war. So why did Booth kill Lincoln? The whole plan to kill Lincoln started with Booth and the conspirators plot to topple the government.
Nearly 150 years ago President Abraham Lincoln was viewed as a martyr who ended slavery and preserved the union, he was hated as much as he was loved. A vaunted stage actor, John Wilks Booth …show more content…

So what exactly happened on the night of Lincoln’s death, and what caused booth and his accomplices to pull the trigger? After Lincoln’s reelection in November, 1864 Booth began plotting against him due to Lincoln being anti-slavery and starting war against the South. In the beginning he only wanted to kidnap Lincoln and hold him for Richmond (confederate capital) and exchange him for confederate prisoners, but once General Robert E. Lee surrendered sent Booth on a rampage and so he decided to devise a more drastic plan. (History.com) on the night of April 14th Booth and three of his conspirators met at a boarding house- Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt and unveiled his plot. After discussing the new plan Booth decided to assign the secretary of state to Powell and Herold, and Atzerodt was supposed to kill Vice President Johnson. They had decided to kill the top people in the hierarchy with hopes to topple the government so the south could take back the Union. Powell later on went to accomplish his mission of killing Seward by bashing Seward’s son with a gun putting him in a temporary coma, and slashing the bodyguard with a knife; then Powell had proceeded to Seward’s room and began stabbing him but before he was able to kill him the bodyguard and another one of Seward’s sons fought off Powell causing

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