5/27/11

SAD~ MARY SURRATT



This is a photo of Mary Surratt, but I think there's another one after she's been hanged.

Adjusting the Ropes, Execution of Lincoln Conspirators, Courtyard, Old Arsenal Prison
Date: July 7, 1865
Artist: Alexander Gardner
American, 1821-1882
Medium: Albumen print

Description: This is a photograph of the Old Arsenal Prison.
There are many guards lined up on the high wall in the background. In the center there is a wooden platform set up for an execution. This photo shows the prisoners being tied and looped with a noose, the execution of Lincoln Conspirators.

After Abraham Lincoln's assassination by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, eight people were tried on conspiracy charges by a military commission. Four of them were sentenced to death by hanging: Lewis Powell, (sometimes known as Lewis Payne), David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt. During their trial, the conspirators were confined to the Old Arsenal Prison.

After a seven-week trial, they were convicted on July 5th, and hanged two days later. Alexander Gardner, with assistance from Timothy O'Sullivan, was the exclusive photographer for this dramatic event. To document the sequence they used two cameras, a large format and a stereo. The photographs were published, as woodcut engravings, in the July 22, 1865 issue of Harper's Weekly. This series of images is one of the earliest examples of photojournalism.

The conspirators were ordered to stand, as cloth hoods were placed over their heads and nooses looped around their necks.
The woman is Mary Surratt, the first female to be executed, (besides witches) by the united states federal government.

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