July 7, 1865

On this day in history in 1865 Mary Surratt became the first woman who was executed by the U.S. government.

Mary Surratt

Who is Mary Surratt?

Mary Surratt seems innocuous enough on the surface. She owned a boarding house in Washington D.C. Prior to that she was born in Maryland where she wed her husband and they owned a tavern, inn, and hotel. The family was sympathetic to the Confederates during the Civil War and often housed other Confederate sympathizers. After her husband died in 1862 from a stroke she no longer could manage their large estate and moved to D.C. where she owned a townhouse she ran as a boarding house.

The Lincoln Assassination

Surratt's downfall came in some of the less-than-savory tenants she housed at her boarding house, namely Lincoln's assassinator John Wilkes Booth. He visited her boarding house several times, along with his co-conspirators, even using Surratt to pass packages between them. He also got Mary's son, John Jr, involved in a conspiracy to kidnap Lincon. Additionally, after killing Lincoln and trying to flee the city Booth picked up rifles and binoculars from Surratt's Maryland tavern. As a result of all of this, after Lincoln's assassination Mary Surratt was arrested.

The Surratt boarding house (circa 1890). Today it is a restaurant in the Chinatown area of D.C.

Surratt's Arrest, Trial and Execution

Very quickly after Lincoln's assassination the Surratts were implicated as being involved and agents went to the boarding house looking for Booth and Mary's son, John Jr. After numerous searches of the house over a course of several days agents eventually found a photograph of Booth in Mary's room. Even worse, Lewis Powell, who had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William H. Steward, showed up at her boarding house at the same time.

After her arrest Surratt was transferred to the Washington Arsenal where she was housed, fairly comfortably, until her trial and later execution. Her trial involved a military tribunal as opposed to a civilian court; all eight conspirators were tried simultaneously. Although historians have conflicting views regarding Suratt's innocence she was found guilty after being charged with aiding, abetting, concealing, counseling, and harboring the conspirators. She was sentenced to death and although five of the nine judges eventually signed a letter asking President Johnson to grant clemency and a reduced sentence of life in prison it was not delivered until after she was executed. (Other reports state Johnson did get the letter in time but refused to sign it).

On July 7, 1865 Mary Surratt was executed by hanging and became the first woman ever executed by the United States federal government.