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173-460: John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland , he was a noted actor who was also a Confederate sympathizer; denouncing President Lincoln, he lamented
346-819: A leading actor after finishing the 1859–1860 theatre season in Richmond, Virginia . He engaged Philadelphia attorney Matthew Canning to serve as his agent. By mid-1860, he was playing in such cities as New York ; Boston ; Chicago ; Cleveland ; St. Louis ; Columbus, Georgia ; Montgomery, Alabama ; and New Orleans . Poet and journalist Walt Whitman said of Booth's acting, "He would have flashes, passages, I thought of real genius." The Philadelphia Press drama critic said, "Without having [his brother] Edwin's culture and grace, Mr. Booth has far more action, more life, and, we are inclined to think, more natural genius." In October 1860, while performing in Columbus, Georgia , Booth
519-742: A nomadic , itinerant lifestyle. Linguistic and genetic evidence suggests that the Roma originated in the Indian subcontinent , in particular the region of Rajasthan . Their first wave of westward migration is believed to have occurred sometime between the 5th and 11th centuries. They are thought to have arrived in Europe around the 13th to 14th century. Although they are widely dispersed , their most concentrated populations are believed to be in Bulgaria , Hungary , Romania , Serbia and Slovakia . In
692-527: A "wretched fiend". Historian Dorothy Kunhardt writes: "Almost every family who kept a photograph album on the parlor table owned a likeness of John Wilkes Booth of the famous Booth family of actors. After the assassination Northerners slid the Booth card out of their albums: some threw it away, some burned it, some crumpled it angrily." Even in the South, sorrow was expressed in some quarters. In Savannah, Georgia ,
865-516: A Corinthian capital". Booth's stage performances were often characterized by his contemporaries as acrobatic and intensely physical, with him leaping upon the stage and gesturing with passion. He was an excellent swordsman, although a fellow actor once recalled that Booth occasionally cut himself with his own sword. Historian Benjamin Platt Thomas wrote that Booth "won celebrity with theater-goers by his romantic personal attraction", and that he
1038-635: A country that has excluded them ethnically and culturally. The very common carnivals throughout Brazil are one of the few spaces in which the Roma can still express their cultural traditions, including the so-called "carnival wedding" in which a boy is disguised as a bride and the famous "Romaní dance", picturesquely simulated with the women of the town parading in their traditional attire. Genetic findings show an Indian origin for Roma. Because Romani groups did not keep chronicles of their history or have oral accounts of it, most hypotheses about early Romani migration are based on linguistic theory. According to
1211-462: A dark colour"). Likewise, the name of the Dom or Domba people of north India—with whom the Roma have genetic, cultural and linguistic links—has come to imply "dark-skinned" in some Indian languages. Hence, names such as kale and calé may have originated as an exonym or a euphemism for Roma . Other endonyms for Roma include, for example: The Romani people have a number of distinct populations,
1384-532: A decorative U.S. Treasury Guard flag while leaping to the stage. Historian Michael W. Kauffman questioned this legend in his book American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies , writing that eyewitness accounts of Booth's hurried stage exit made it unlikely that his leg was broken then. Kauffman contends that Booth was injured later that night during his flight to escape when his horse tripped and fell on him, calling Booth's claim to
1557-550: A dividing partition removed. The play was interrupted, and the orchestra played " Hail to the Chief " as the full house of about 1,700 rose in applause. Lincoln sat in a rocking chair that had been selected for him from among the Ford family's personal furnishings. The cast modified a line of the play in honor of Lincoln: when the heroine asked for a seat protected from the draft, the reply – scripted as, "Well, you're not
1730-535: A dream in which he wandered the White House searching for the source of mournful sounds: I kept on until I arrived at the East Room , which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque , on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face
1903-565: A family friend, claimed in 1882 that Mary Lincoln told him that Lincoln's last words expressed a wish to visit Jerusalem . Lincoln's usual protections were not in place that night at Ford's. Crook was on a second shift at the White House, and Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln's personal bodyguard, was away in Richmond on assignment from Lincoln. John Frederick Parker was assigned to guard the Presidential Box. At intermission he went to
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#17327753611982076-741: A famous actor and national celebrity in his own right. He was also an outspoken Confederate sympathizer; in late 1860 he was initiated in the pro-Confederate Knights of the Golden Circle in Baltimore , Maryland. In May 1863, the Confederate States Congress passed a law prohibiting the exchange of black soldiers, following a previous decree by President Jefferson Davis in December 1862 that neither black soldiers nor their white officers would be exchanged. This became
2249-458: A famous and popular actor who had frequently performed there and who was well known to its owner John T. Ford, even having his mail sent there. Many believe that Booth had bored a spyhole into the door of the presidential box earlier that day, so that he could observe the box's occupants and verify that the President had made it to the play. Conversely, an April 1962 letter from Frank Ford, son of
2422-494: A farm in rural Northern Virginia , he was tracked down sheltered in a barn. Booth's companion David Herold surrendered, but Booth maintained a stand-off. After the authorities set the barn ablaze, Union soldier Boston Corbett fatally shot him in the neck. Paralyzed, he died a few hours later. Of the eight conspirators later convicted, four were soon hanged. Booth's parents were noted British Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth and his mistress, Mary Ann Holmes, who moved to
2595-496: A friend of John Surratt and a boarder at Mary Surratt's house, that he was done with the stage and that the only play he wanted to present henceforth was Venice Preserv'd . Weichmann did not understand the reference; Venice Preserv'd is about an assassination plot. Booth's scheme to kidnap Lincoln was no longer feasible with the Union Army's capture of Richmond and Lee's surrender, and he changed his goal to assassination. On
2768-709: A genius, praising his acting for "never fail[ing] to delight with his masterly impressions." As the Civil War raged across the divided land in 1862, Booth appeared mostly in Union and border states . In January, he played the title role in Richard III in St. Louis and then made his Chicago debut. In March, he made his first acting appearance in New York City . In May 1862, he made his Boston debut, playing nightly at
2941-429: A getaway horse and an escape route. Later that night, at 8:45 pm, Booth informed Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt of his intention to kill Lincoln. He assigned Powell to assassinate Secretary of State William H. Seward and Atzerodt to do so to Vice President Andrew Johnson . Herold would assist in their escape into Virginia. Historian Michael W. Kauffman wrote that, by targeting Lincoln and his two immediate successors to
3114-430: A good yield. The Fuller Farm Oil company was selling shares with a prospectus featuring the well-known actor's celebrity status as "Mr. J. Wilkes Booth, a successful and intelligent operator in oil lands". The partners were impatient to increase the well's output and attempted the use of explosives, which wrecked the well and ended production. Booth was already growing more obsessed with the South's worsening situation in
3287-567: A headache and was inclined to stay home, but Lincoln told her he must attend because newspapers had announced that he would. William H. Crook , one of Lincoln's bodyguards, advised him not to go, but Lincoln said he had promised his wife. Lincoln told Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax , "I suppose it's time to go though I would rather stay" before assisting Mary into the carriage. The presidential party arrived late and settled into their box, made from two adjoining boxes with
3460-603: A house in Washington, D.C., where Booth became a frequent visitor. Booth and Lincoln were not personally acquainted, but Lincoln had seen Booth at Ford's Theatre in 1863. After the assassination, actor Frank Mordaunt wrote that Lincoln, who apparently harbored no suspicions about Booth, admired the actor and had repeatedly but unsuccessfully invited him to visit the White House . Booth attended Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4, 1865, writing in his diary afterwards: "What an excellent chance I had, if I wished, to kill
3633-417: A large part of the basic lexicon. Romani and Domari share some similarities: agglutination of postpositions of the second layer (or case-marking clitics) to the nominal stem, concord markers for the past tense, the neutralisation of gender marking in the plural, and the use of the oblique case as an accusative. This has prompted much discussion about the relationships between these two languages. Domari
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#17327753611983806-602: A legend reported in the Persian epic poem, the Shahnameh , the Sasanian king Bahrām V Gōr learned towards the end of his reign (421–439) that the poor could not afford to enjoy music, and so he asked the king of India to send him ten thousand luris , lute-playing experts. When the luris arrived, Bahrām gave each one an ox, a donkey, and a donkey-load of wheat so they could live on agriculture and play music for free for
3979-569: A letter, "be well assured she is really and truly devoted to you." Booth composed a handwritten Valentine card for his fiancée on February 13, expressing his "adoration". She was unaware of Booth's deep antipathy towards Lincoln. As the 1864 presidential election drew near, the Confederacy's prospects for victory were ebbing, and the tide of war increasingly favored the North. The likelihood of Lincoln's re-election filled Booth with rage towards
4152-412: A loose-knit band of Confederate sympathizers, including David Herold , George Atzerodt , Lewis Powell (also known as Lewis Payne or Paine), and rebel agent John Surratt . They began to meet routinely at the boarding house of Surratt's mother, Mary Surratt . By this time, John was arguing vehemently with his older, pro-Union brother Edwin about Lincoln and the war, and Edwin finally told him that he
4325-419: A man came in and walked slowly along the side on which the "Pres" box was and I heard a man say, "There's Booth" and I turned my head to look at him. He was still walking very slow and was near the box door when he stopped, took a card from his pocket, wrote something on it, and gave it to the usher who took it to the box. In a minute the door was opened and he walked in. Once inside the hallway, Booth barricaded
4498-402: A nearby tavern along with Lincoln's valet, Charles Forbes, and Coachman Francis Burke. Booth had several drinks while waiting for his planned time. It is unclear whether Parker returned to the theater, but he was certainly not at his post when Booth entered the box. In any event, there is no certainty that entry would have been denied to a celebrity such as Booth. Booth had prepared a brace to bar
4671-560: A noun (with the plural Romani , the Romani , Romanies , or Romanis ) and an adjective. Both Rom and Romani have been in use in English since the 19th century as an alternative for Gypsy . Romani was sometimes spelled Rommany , but more often Romany , while today Romani is the most popular spelling. Occasionally, the double r spelling (e.g., Rroma , Rromani ) mentioned above is also encountered in English texts. The term Roma
4844-399: A number of ancient isoglosses with central Indo-Aryan languages in relation to realization of some sounds of Old Indo-Aryan . This is lent further credence by its sharing exactly the same pattern of northwestern languages such as Kashmiri and Shina through the adoption of oblique enclitic pronouns as person markers. The overall morphology suggests that Romani participated in some of
5017-551: A performance of the play Still Waters Run Deep at a hospital near the Soldier's Home. He assembled his team on a stretch of road near the Soldier's Home in hope of kidnapping Lincoln en route to the hospital, but the President did not appear. Booth later learned that Lincoln had changed his plans at the last moment to attend a reception at the National Hotel in Washington — where Booth was staying. On April 11, 1865, Booth
5190-475: A possible attempt to rescue Brown from the gallows by force. When Brown was hanged without incident, Booth stood near the scaffold and afterwards expressed great satisfaction with Brown's fate, although he admired the condemned man's bravery in facing death stoically. Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860, and the following month Booth drafted a long speech, apparently never delivered, that decried Northern abolitionism and made clear his strong support of
5363-423: A reality in mid-July 1863 after some soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts were not exchanged following their assault on Fort Wagner . On July 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued General Order 252 to stop prisoner exchanges with the South until all Northern soldiers would be exchanged without regard for their skin color. Stopping the prisoner exchanges is often wrongly attributed to General Grant, even though he
John Wilkes Booth - Misplaced Pages Continue
5536-599: A regimen of daily formation drills and strict discipline. Booth left school at 14 after his father's death. While attending the Milton Boarding School, Booth met a Romani fortune-teller who read his palm and pronounced a grim destiny, telling him that he would have a grand but short life, doomed to die young and "meeting a bad end". His sister recalled that he wrote down the palm-reader's prediction, showed it to his family and others, and often discussed its portents in moments of melancholy. By age 16, Booth
5709-482: A significant genetic mark on the Y-DNA of the Roma there, creating a higher frequency of Haplogroups J and E3b in Romani populations from the region. A full genome autosomal DNA study on 186 Roma samples from Europe in 2019 found that modern Romani people are characterized by a common south Asian origin and a complex admixture from Balkan , Middle East, and Caucasus -derived ancestries. The autosomal genetic data links
5882-649: A slave insurrection, charges resulting from his raid on the Federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (since 1863, West Virginia ). Booth had been rehearsing at the Richmond Theatre when he read in a newspaper about Brown's upcoming execution. So as to gain access that the public would not have, he donned a borrowed uniform of the Richmond Grays , a volunteer militia of 1,500 men traveling to Charles Town for Brown's hanging, to guard against
6055-541: A soldier assigned to Seward, were alerted by Fanny's screams and received stab wounds in struggling with Powell. As Augustus went for a pistol, Powell ran downstairs toward the door, where he encountered Emerick Hansell, a State Department messenger. Powell stabbed Hansell in the back, then ran outside exclaiming, "I'm mad! I'm mad!" Screams from the house had frightened Herold, who ran off, leaving Powell to find his own way in an unfamiliar city. Booth had assigned George Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, who
6228-545: A variety of reasons, such as fear of discrimination. Others are descendants of intermarriage with local populations, some who no longer identify only as Romani and some who do not identify as Romani at all. Then, too, some countries do not collect data by ethnicity. Despite these challenges to getting an accurate picture of the Romani dispersal, there were an estimated 10 million in Europe (as of 2019), although some Romani organizations have given earlier estimates as high as 14 million. Significant Romani populations are found in
6401-507: A word that Rathbone thought sounded like "Freedom!" Rathbone jumped from his seat and struggled with Booth, who dropped the pistol and drew a dagger with which he stabbed Rathbone in the left forearm. Rathbone again grabbed at Booth as he prepared to jump from the box to the stage, a twelve-foot drop; Booth's riding spur became entangled on the Treasury flag decorating the box , and he landed awkwardly on his left foot. As he began crossing
6574-689: Is increasingly encountered as a generic term for the Roma. Because not all Roma use the word Romani as an adjective, the term became a noun for the entire ethnic group. Today, the term Romani is used by some organizations, including the United Nations and the US Library of Congress. However, the Council of Europe and other organizations consider that Roma is the correct term referring to all related groups, regardless of their country of origin, and recommend that Romani be restricted to
6747-489: Is now believed to have occurred beginning in about 500 CE. It has also been suggested that emigration from India may have taken place in the context of the raids by Mahmud of Ghazni . As these soldiers were defeated, they were moved west with their families into the Byzantine Empire . The author Ralph Lilley Turner theorised a central Indian origin of Romani followed by a migration to northwest India as it shares
6920-541: Is similar uncertainty about what Booth shouted next, in English: either "The South is avenged!", "Revenge for the South!", or "The South shall be free!" Two witnesses remembered Booth's words as: "I have done it!" Immediately after Booth landed on the stage, Major Joseph B. Stewart climbed over the orchestra pit and footlights and pursued Booth across the stage. The screams of Mary Lincoln and Clara Harris, and Rathbone's cries of, "Stop that man!" prompted others to join
7093-480: Is used exclusively for an older Northern Romani -speaking population (which arrived in the 16th century) while Rom/Romanes is used to describe Vlax Romani -speaking groups that migrated since the 19th century. In the English language (according to the Oxford English Dictionary ), Rom is both a noun (with the plural Roma or Roms ) and an adjective. Similarly, Romani ( Romany ) is both
John Wilkes Booth - Misplaced Pages Continue
7266-534: Is used to represent the phoneme /ʀ/ (also written as ř and rh ), which in some Romani dialects has remained different from the one written with a single r . The rr spelling is common in certain institutions (such as the INALCO Institute in Paris), or used in certain countries, e.g., Romania, to distinguish from the endonym / homonym for Romanians ( sg. român, pl. români ). In Norway, Romani
7439-532: The European Journal of Human Genetics "has revealed that over 70% of males belong to a single lineage that appears unique to the Roma". Genetic evidence supports the medieval migration from India. The Roma have been described as "a conglomerate of genetically isolated founder populations", while a number of common Mendelian disorders among Roma from all over Europe indicates "a common origin and founder effect ". A 2020 whole-genome study confirmed
7612-535: The American Civil War remained unresolved because the Army of Tennessee of General Joseph E. Johnston continued fighting. Booth shot President Lincoln once in the back of the head. Lincoln's death the next morning completed Booth's piece of the plot. Seward, severely wounded, recovered, whereas Vice President Johnson was never attacked. Booth fled on horseback to Southern Maryland ; twelve days later, at
7785-694: The Balkans , in some central European states, in Spain, France, Russia and Ukraine. In the European Union , there are an estimated 6 million Roma. Outside Europe there may be several million more Roma, in particular in the Middle East and the Americas. The Roma may identify as distinct ethnicities based in part on territorial, cultural and dialectal differences, and self-designation. Like
7958-462: The Baltimore Plot and an additional assassination attempt in which a hole was shot through Lincoln's hat. For months, Lincoln had looked pale and haggard, but on the morning of the assassination he told people how happy he was. First Lady Mary Lincoln felt such talk could bring bad luck. Lincoln told his cabinet that he had dreamed of being on a "singular and indescribable vessel that
8131-734: The Boston Museum in Richard III (May 12, 15 and 23), Romeo and Juliet (May 13), The Robbers (May 14 and 21), Hamlet (May 16), The Apostate (May 19), The Stranger (May 20), and The Lady of Lyons (May 22). Following his performance of Richard III on May 12, the Boston Transcript 's review the next day called Booth "the most promising young actor on the American stage". Starting in January 1863, he returned to
8304-633: The Greek Αιγύπτιοι ( Aigyptioi ), meaning "Egyptian", via Latin . This designation owes its existence to the belief, common in the Middle Ages, that the Roma, or some related group (such as the Indian Dom people ), were itinerant Egyptians . This belief appears to be derived from verses in the biblical Book of Ezekiel (29: 6 and 12–13) which refer to the Egyptians being scattered among
8477-679: The Old Soldiers Home , three miles (4.8 km) from the White House, and to smuggle him across the Potomac River and into Richmond, Virginia . Once in Confederate hands, Lincoln would be exchanged for Confederate Army prisoners of war held in Northern prisons and, Booth reasoned, bring the war to an end by emboldening opposition to the war in the North or forcing Union recognition of the Confederate government. Throughout
8650-734: The Pennsylvania oil rush had started in August 1859, following Edwin Drake 's discovery of oil there, initially calling their venture Dramatic Oil but later renaming it Fuller Farm Oil. The partners invested in a 31.5-acre (12.7 ha) site along the Allegheny River at Franklin, Pennsylvania in late 1863 for drilling. By early 1864, they had a producing 1,900-foot (579 m) deep oil well named Wilhelmina for Mears' wife, yielding 25 barrels (4 kL) of crude oil daily, then considered
8823-649: The Portuguese Empire during the Portuguese Inquisition . Since the late 19th century, Roma have also migrated to other countries in South America and Canada. The Romani language is an Indo-Aryan language with strong Balkan and Greek influence. It is divided into several dialects , which together are estimated to have over 2 million speakers. Because the language has traditionally been oral, many Roma are native speakers of
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#17327753611988996-506: The dominant language in their country of residence, or else of mixed languages that combine the dominant language with a dialect of Romani in varieties sometimes called para-Romani . Rom literally means husband in the Romani language , with the plural Roma . The feminine of Rom in the Romani language is Romni/Romli/Romnije or Romlije . However, in most other languages Rom is now used for individuals regardless of gender. It has
9169-572: The numerals in the Romani , Domari and Lomavren languages, with the corresponding terms in Sanskrit , Hindi , Odia , and Sinhala to demonstrate the similarities. Note that the Romani numerals 7 through 9 have been borrowed from Greek . Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Roma originated in northwestern India and migrated as a group. According to the study, the ancestors of present scheduled caste and scheduled tribe populations of northern India , traditionally referred to collectively as
9342-545: The Ḍoma , are the likely ancestral populations of modern European Roma. In December 2012, additional findings appeared to confirm that the "Roma came from a single group that left northwestern India about 1,500 years ago". They reached the Balkans about 900 years ago and then spread throughout Europe. The team also found that the Roma displayed genetic isolation, as well as "differential gene flow in time and space with non-Romani Europeans". Genetic research published in
9515-582: The Americas with Columbus in 1498. Spain sent Romani slaves to their Louisiana colony between 1762 and 1800. An Afro-Romani community exists in St. Martin Parish due to intermarriage of freed African American and Romani slaves. The Romani population in the United States is estimated at more than one million. In Brazil, the Roma are mainly called ciganos by non-Romani Brazilians. Most of them belong to
9688-865: The Boston Museum for a series of plays, including the role of villain Duke Pescara in The Apostate , that won him acclaim from audiences and critics. Back in Washington in April, he played the title roles in Hamlet and Richard III, one of his favorites. He was billed as "The Pride of the American People, A Star of the First Magnitude", and the critics were equally enthusiastic. The National Republican drama critic said that Booth "took
9861-410: The Civil War and angered at Lincoln's re-election. He withdrew from the oil business on November 27, 1864, with a substantial loss of his $ 6,000 investment ($ 1,168,851 today). Booth was strongly opposed to the abolitionists who sought to end slavery in the United States. He attended the hanging of abolitionist leader John Brown on December 2, 1859, who was executed for treason, murder, and inciting
10034-807: The Civil War, the Confederacy maintained a network of underground operators in southern Maryland, particularly Charles and St. Mary's Counties, smuggling recruits across the Potomac River into Virginia and relaying messages for Confederate agents as far north as Canada. Booth recruited his friends Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlen as accomplices. They met often at the house of Confederate sympathizer Maggie Branson at 16 North Eutaw Street in Baltimore. He also met with several well-known Confederate sympathizers at The Parker House in Boston. In October, Booth made an unexplained trip to Montreal , which
10207-421: The Confederacy's defeat became more certain. Booth attended Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4 as the guest of his secret fiancée Lucy Hale. In the crowd below were Powell, Atzerodt, and Herold. There was no attempt to assassinate Lincoln during the inauguration. Later, Booth remarked about his "excellent chance...to kill the President, if I had wished". On March 17, he learned that Lincoln would be attending
10380-483: The Confederate cause and sought a way to salvage it; he soon decided to assassinate Lincoln. There are various theories about Booth's motivations. In a letter to his mother, he wrote of his desire to avenge the South. Doris Kearns Goodwin has endorsed the idea that another factor was Booth's rivalry with his well-known older brother, actor Edwin Booth , who was a loyal Unionist. David S. Reynolds believes that, though disagreeing with his cause, Booth greatly admired
10553-562: The English language, Romani people have long been known by the exonym Gypsies or Gipsies , which many Roma consider a racial slur . The attendees of the first World Romani Congress in 1971 unanimously voted to reject the use of all exonyms for the Roma, including "Gypsy". However, it is not considered a slur in the UK and Romani people in the United Kingdom commonly refer to themselves as "Gypsies". The first Roma to come to
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#173277536119810726-425: The Gypsy, Roma and Traveller grouping, this is the name used to describe all para-Romani groups in official contexts. In North America, the word Gypsy is most commonly used as a reference to Romani ethnicity, though lifestyle and fashion are at times also referenced by using this word. Another designation of the Roma is Cingane (alternatively Çingene, Tsinganoi, Zigar, Zigeuner, Tschingaren), likely deriving from
10899-469: The Harford County property as the family's summer home in 1851, while also maintaining a winter residence on Exeter Street in Baltimore. The Booth family was listed as living in Baltimore in the 1850 census. As a boy, Booth was athletic and popular, and he became skilled at horsemanship and fencing. He attended the Bel Air Academy and was an indifferent student whom the headmaster thought was "not deficient in intelligence, but disinclined to take advantage of
11072-498: The Indian subcontinent. In addition, they theorized of a possible low- caste ( Dalit ) origin for the Proto-Roma, since they were genetically closer to the Punjabi cluster that lacks a common marker characteristic of high castes, which is West Euroasian admixing. The Roma may have emerged from what is the modern Indian state of Rajasthan , migrating to the northwest (the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent ) around 250 BCE. Their subsequent westward migration, possibly in waves,
11245-447: The Persian word چنگانه ( chingane ), derived from the Turkic word çıgañ , meaning poor person. It is also possible that the origin of this word is Athinganoi , the name of a Christian sect with whom the Roma (or some related group) could have become associated in the past. There is no official or reliable count of the Romani populations worldwide. Many Roma refuse to register their ethnic identity in official censuses for
11418-452: The President as a "tyrant," a "despot," a "usurper," hinted at, and virtually recommended. Booth wrote of his dismay in a journal entry on April 21, as he awaited nightfall before crossing the Potomac River into Virginia: For six months we had worked to capture. But our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done. I struck boldly, and not as the papers say. I can never repent it, though we hated to kill. That same day,
11591-454: The President on Inauguration day!" On March 17, Booth and the other conspirators planned to abduct Lincoln as he returned from a play at Campbell General Hospital in northwest Washington. Lincoln did not go to the play, however, instead attending a ceremony at the National Hotel . Booth was living at the National Hotel at the time and, had he not gone to the hospital for the abortive kidnap attempt, might have been able to attack Lincoln at
11764-483: The President's head in her lap. He pronounced the wound mortal. Leale, Taft, and another doctor, Albert King , decided that Lincoln must be moved to the nearest house on Tenth Street because a carriage ride to the White House was too dangerous. Carefully, seven men picked up Lincoln and slowly carried him out of the theater, which was packed with an angry mob. After considering Peter Taltavull 's Star Saloon next door, they concluded that they would take Lincoln to one of
11937-406: The President, kissing him and calling him every endearing name." Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15. Mary Lincoln was not present. In his last moments, Lincoln's face became calm and his breathing quieter. Field wrote there was "no apparent suffering, no convulsive action, no rattling of the throat ... [only] a mere cessation of breathing". According to Lincoln's secretary John Hay , at
12110-402: The President, whom Booth blamed for the war and all of the South's troubles. Booth had promised his mother at the outbreak of war that he would not enlist as a soldier, but he increasingly chafed at not fighting for the South, writing in a letter to her, "I have begun to deem myself a coward and to despise my own existence." He began to formulate plans to kidnap Lincoln from his summer residence at
12283-410: The Presidential Box at Ford's Theater. Powell told Bell that he had medicine from Seward's physician and that his instructions were to personally show Seward how to take it. Overcoming Bell's skepticism, Powell made his way up the stairs to Seward's third-floor bedroom. At the top of the staircase he was stopped by Seward's son, Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward , to whom he repeated
12456-440: The Presidential Box, but could not open it until Rathbone, inside, noticed and removed the wooden brace with which Booth had jammed the door shut. Leale found Lincoln seated with his head leaning to his right as Mary held him and sobbed: "His eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly comatose condition, while his breathing was intermittent and exceedingly stertorous ." Thinking Lincoln had been stabbed, Leale shifted him to
12629-448: The Roma in general, many different ethnonyms are given to subgroups of Roma. Sometimes a subgroup uses more than one endonym , is commonly known by an exonym or erroneously by the endonym of another subgroup. The only name approaching an all-encompassing self-description is Rom . Even when subgroups do not use the name, they all acknowledge a common origin and a dichotomy between themselves and Gadjo (non-Roma). For instance, while
12802-550: The Romani language shares several isoglosses with the Central branch of Indo-Aryan languages, especially in the realization of some sounds of the Old Indo-Aryan. However, it also preserves several dental clusters. In regards to verb morphology, Romani follows exactly the same pattern of northwestern languages such as Kashmiri and Shina through the adoption of oblique enclitic pronouns as person markers, lending credence to
12975-1228: The Romani population "was founded approximately 32–40 generations ago, with secondary and tertiary founder events occurring approximately 16–25 generations ago". Haplogroup H-M82 is a major lineage cluster in the Balkan Romani group, accounting for approximately 60% of the total. Haplogroup H is uncommon in Europe but present in the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka . A study of 444 people representing three ethnic groups in North Macedonia found mtDNA haplogroups M5a1 and H7a1a were dominant in Romanies (13.7% and 10.3%, respectively). Y-DNA composition of Muslim Roma from Šuto Orizari Municipality in North Macedonia , based on 57 samples: Y-DNA Haplogroup H1a occurs in Roma at frequencies 7–70%. Unlike ethnic Hungarians, among Hungarian and Slovakian Roma subpopulations Haplogroup E-M78 and I1 usually occur above 10% and sometimes over 20%, while among Slovakian and Tiszavasvari Roma,
13148-412: The South and refused to listen to John Wilkes' fiercely partisan denunciations of the North and Lincoln. In early 1863, Booth was arrested in St. Louis while on a theatre tour, when he was heard saying that he "wished the President and the whole damned government would go to hell." He was charged with making "treasonous" remarks against the government, but was released when he took an oath of allegiance to
13321-669: The South and the institution of slavery . On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began, and eventually 11 Southern states seceded from the Union. In Booth's native Maryland, some of the slaveholding portion of the population favored joining the Confederate States of America . Although the Maryland legislature voted decisively (53–13) against secession on April 28, 1861, it also voted not to allow federal troops to pass south through
13494-420: The South as well as the North", writes Kunhardt. Booth continued hiding in the Maryland woods, waiting for an opportunity to cross the Potomac River into Virginia. He read the accounts of national mourning reported in the newspapers brought to him by Jones each day. By April 20, he was aware that some of his co-conspirators had already been arrested: Mary Surratt , Powell (or Paine), Arnold, and O'Laughlen. Booth
13667-563: The Union and paid a substantial fine. Booth is alleged to have been a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle , a secret society whose initial objective was to acquire territories as slave states. In February 1865, Booth became infatuated with Lucy Lambert Hale , the daughter of U.S. Senator John P. Hale of New Hampshire , and they became secretly engaged when Booth received his mother's blessing for their marriage plans. "You have so often been dead in love," his mother counseled Booth in
13840-456: The United States arrived in Virginia , Georgia , New Jersey and Louisiana during the 1600s. Romani slaves were first shipped to the Americas with Columbus in 1498. Spain sent Romani slaves to their Louisiana colony between 1762 and 1800. An Afro-Romani community exists in St. Martin Parish due to intermarriage between freed African American and Romani slaves. The Romani population in
14013-514: The United States from England in June 1821. They purchased a 150-acre (61 ha) farm near Bel Air, Maryland , where John Wilkes Booth was born in a four-room log house on May 10, 1838, the ninth of ten children. He was named after English radical politician John Wilkes , a distant relative. Thirty years after he had absconded across the Atlantic Ocean, Junius' wife Adelaide Delannoy Booth
14186-532: The United States is estimated at more than one million. There are between 800,000 and 1 million Roma in Brazil , most of whose ancestors emigrated in the 19th century from Eastern Europe. Brazilian Roma are mostly descended from German/Italian Sinti (in the South/Southeast regions), and Roma and Calon people. Brazil also includes a notable Romani community descended from Sinti and Roma deportees from
14359-413: The alley, where his getaway horse was held for him by Joseph "Peanuts" Burroughs. The owner of the horse had warned Booth that the horse was high-spirited and would break halter if left unattended. Booth had left the horse with Edmund Spangler and Spangler arranged for Burroughs to hold it. Booth rode into southern Maryland, accompanied by David Herold, having planned his escape route to take advantage of
14532-537: The anti-malarial drug quinine , which was crucial to the lives of residents of the Gulf coast, to the South during his travels there, since it was in short supply due to the Northern blockade. Booth was pro-Confederate, but his family was divided, like many Marylanders. He was outspoken in his love of the South, and equally outspoken in his hatred of Lincoln. As the Civil War went on, Booth increasingly quarreled with his brother Edwin, who declined to make stage appearances in
14705-709: The audience to roar with laughter. Later that year, Booth played the part of Mohegan Indian Chief Uncas in a play staged in Petersburg, Virginia , and then became a stock company actor at the Richmond Theatre (known then as the Marshall Theatre) in Virginia which was co-managed by George Kunkel , John T. Ford , and Thomas L. Moxley. There he became increasingly popular with audiences for his energetic performances. On October 5, 1858, he played
14878-405: The carriers might be of Romani origin. Among non-Roma-speaking Europeans, it occurs at 2% among Slovaks , 2% among Croats , 1% among Macedonians from Skopje, 3% among Macedonian Albanians , 1% among Serbs from Belgrade , 3% among Bulgarians from Sofia, 1% among Austrians and Swiss, 3% among Romanians from Ploiești , and 1% among Turks . The Ottoman occupation of the Balkans also left
15051-404: The chase as pandemonium broke out. Booth exited the theater through a side door, and on the way stabbing orchestra leader William Withers Jr. As he leapt into the saddle of his getaway horse Booth pushed away Joseph Burroughs, who had been holding the horse, striking Burroughs with the handle of his knife. Charles Leale , a young Union Army surgeon, pushed through the crowd to the door of
15224-410: The contrary an exaggeration to portray his own actions as heroic. Booth was the only one of the assassins to succeed. Powell was able to stab Seward, who was bedridden as a result of an earlier carriage accident; Seward was seriously wounded but survived. Atzerodt lost his nerve and spent the evening drinking alcohol, never making an attempt to kill Johnson. Booth fled Ford's Theatre by a stage door to
15397-442: The daring of abolitionist John Brown ; Booth's sister Asia Booth Clarke quoted him as saying, "John Brown was a man inspired, the grandest character of the century!" On April 11, Booth attended Lincoln's last speech, in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for emancipated slaves; Booth said, "That means nigger citizenship. ... That is the last speech he will ever give." Enraged, Booth urged Powell to shoot Lincoln on
15570-554: The death scene. Booth made the final appearance of his acting career at Ford's on March 18, 1865, when he again played Duke Pescara in The Apostate. Booth invested some of his growing wealth in various enterprises during the early 1860s, including land speculation in Boston's Back Bay section . He also started a business partnership with John A. Ellsler , manager of the Cleveland Academy of Music, and with Thomas Mears to develop oil wells in northwestern Pennsylvania, where
15743-506: The dominant haplogroup is H1a; among Tokaj Roma it is Haplogroup J2a (23%); and among Taktaharkány Roma, it is Haplogroup I2a (21%). Five rather consistent founder lineages throughout the subpopulations were found among Roma – J-M67 and J-M92 (J2), H-M52 (H1a1), and I-P259 (I1). Haplogroup I-P259 as H is not found at frequencies of over 3% among host populations, while haplogroups E and I are absent in south Asia. The lineages E-V13, I-P37 (I2a) and R-M17 (R1a) may represent gene flow from
15916-426: The door after entering the box, indicating that he expected a guard. After spending time at the tavern, Booth entered Ford's Theatre one last time at about 10:10 pm, this time through the theater's front entrance. He passed through the dress circle and went to the door that led to the Presidential Box after showing Charles Forbes his calling card. Navy Surgeon George Brainerd Todd saw Booth arrive: About 10:25 pm,
16089-427: The door again, and Powell shoved past her to Seward's bed. He stabbed at Seward's face and neck, slicing open his cheek. However, the splint (often mistakenly described as a neck brace ) that doctors had fitted to Seward's broken jaw prevented the blade from penetrating his jugular vein. Seward eventually recovered, though with serious scars on his face. Seward's son Augustus and Sergeant George F. Robinson ,
16262-486: The door by wedging a stick between it and the wall. From here, a second door led to Lincoln's box. Evidence shows that, earlier in the day, Booth had bored a peephole in this second door. Booth knew the play Our American Cousin , and waited to time his shot at about 10:15 pm, with the laughter at one of the hilarious lines of the play, delivered by actor Harry Hawk : "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!". Lincoln
16435-636: The educational opportunities offered him." In 1850–1851, he attended the Quaker -run Milton Boarding School for Boys located in Sparks, Maryland , and later St. Timothy's Hall, an Episcopal military academy in Catonsville, Maryland . At the Milton school, students recited classical works by such authors as Cicero , Herodotus , and Tacitus . Students at St. Timothy's wore military uniforms and were subject to
16608-551: The ethnic subgroup Calés (Kale) of the Iberian peninsula. Juscelino Kubitschek , Brazil's president from 1956 to 1961, was 50% Czech Romani by his mother's bloodline, and Washington Luís , the last president of the First Brazilian Republic (1926–1930), had Portuguese Kale ancestry. Persecution against the Roma has led to many of the cultural practices being extinguished, hidden or modified to survive in
16781-622: The floor. Meanwhile, another physician, Charles Sabin Taft , was lifted into the box from the stage. After Leale and bystander William Kent cut away Lincoln's collar while unbuttoning his coat and shirt and found no stab wound, Leale located the gunshot wound behind the left ear. He found the bullet too deep to be removed but dislodged a blood clot , after which Lincoln's breathing improved; he learned that regularly removing new clots maintained Lincoln's breathing. After giving Lincoln artificial respiration , Leale allowed actress Laura Keene to cradle
16954-430: The following days. About 7 million people lined the railroad tracks along the 1,662-mile (2,675 km) route, holding aloft signs with legends such as "We mourn our loss", "He lives in the hearts of his people", and "[t]he darkest hour in history". Assassination of Abraham Lincoln On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln , the 16th president of the United States , was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending
17127-550: The guns and ammunition that Booth had previously stored at the tavern. The conspirators met for the final time at 8:45 pm. Booth assigned Powell to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward at his home, Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson at the Kirkwood Hotel, and Herold to guide Powell (who was unfamiliar with Washington) to the Seward house and then to a rendezvous with Booth in Maryland. Booth
17300-632: The hearts of the audience by storm" and termed his performance "a complete triumph". At the beginning of July 1863, Booth finished the acting season at Cleveland 's Academy of Music, as the Battle of Gettysburg raged in Pennsylvania . Between September and November 1863, Booth played a hectic schedule in the northeastern United States , appearing in Boston, Providence, Rhode Island , and Hartford, Connecticut . Every day he received fan mail from infatuated women. Family friend John T. Ford opened 1,500-seat Ford's Theatre on November 9 in Washington, D.C. Booth
17473-431: The hemorrhage continued, they removed blood clots to relieve pressure on the brain, and Leale held the comatose president's hand with a firm grip, "to let him know that he was in touch with humanity and had a friend". Lincoln's older son Robert Todd Lincoln arrived at about 11 pm, but twelve-year-old Tad Lincoln , who was watching a play of Aladdin at Grover's Theater when he learned of his father's assassination,
17646-488: The host populations. Bulgarian, Romanian and Greek Roma are dominated by Haplogroup H-M82 (H1a1), while among Spanish Roma J2 is prevalent. In Serbia among Kosovo and Belgrade Roma Haplogroup H prevails, while among Vojvodina Roma, H drops to 7 percent and E-V13 rises to a prevailing level. Among non-Roma Europeans, Haplogroup H is extremely rare, peaking at 7% among Albanians from Tirana and 11% among Bulgarian Turks . It occurs at 5% among Hungarians , although
17819-577: The hotel. Meanwhile, the Confederacy was collapsing. On April 3, Richmond, Virginia , the Confederate capital, fell to the Union Army . On April 9, General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Potomac after the Battle of Appomattox Court House . Confederate President Jefferson Davis and other Confederate officials had fled. Nevertheless, Booth continued to believe in
17992-421: The houses across the way. It was raining as soldiers carried Lincoln into the street, where a man urged them toward the house of tailor William Petersen . In Petersen's first-floor bedroom, the exceptionally tall Lincoln was laid diagonally on a small bed. After clearing everyone out of the room, including Mrs. Lincoln, the doctors cut away Lincoln's clothes but discovered no other wounds. Finding that Lincoln
18165-568: The language and culture: Romani language , Romani culture . The British government uses the term "Roma" as a sub-group of " White " in its ethnic classification system. The standard assumption is that the demonyms of the Roma, Lom and Dom , share the same origin. The English exonym Gypsy (or Gipsy ) originates from the Middle English gypcian , short for Egipcien . The Spanish term Gitano and French Gitan have similar etymologies. They are ultimately derived from
18338-400: The largest being the Roma, who reached Anatolia and the Balkans about the early 12th century from a migration out of northwestern India beginning about 600 years earlier. The Roma migrated throughout Europe and Iberian Calé or Caló. The first Roma to come to the United States arrived in Virginia, Georgia , New Jersey and Louisiana during the 1500s. Romani slaves were first shipped to
18511-663: The lower levels of the Southern secret service, the abduction of the Union President was under consideration." Historian Thomas Goodrich concludes that Booth entered the Confederate Secret Service as a spy and courier. Lincoln won a landslide re-election in early November 1864, on a platform that advocated abolishing slavery altogether, by Constitutional amendment . Booth, meanwhile, devoted increased energy and money to his kidnapping plot. He assembled
18684-744: The main group of Roma in German-speaking countries refer to themselves as Sinti , their name for their original language is Romanes . Subgroups have been described as, in part, a result of the castes and subcastes in India, which the founding population of Rom almost certainly experienced in their south Asian urheimat . Many groups use names derived from the Romani word kalo or calo , meaning "black" or "absorbing all light". This closely resembles words for "black" or "dark" in Indo-Aryan languages (e.g., Sanskrit काल kāla : "black", "of
18857-433: The mayor and city council addressed a vast throng at an outdoor gathering to express their indignation, and many in the crowd wept. Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston called Booth's act "a disgrace to the age". Robert E. Lee also expressed regret at Lincoln's death by Booth's hand. Not all were grief-stricken. In New York City, a man was attacked by an enraged crowd when he shouted, "It served Old Abe right!" after hearing
19030-525: The medicine story; Frederick, suspicious, said his father was asleep. Hearing voices, Seward's daughter Fanny emerged from Seward's room and said, "Fred, Father is awake now" – thus revealing to Powell where Seward was. Powell turned as if to start downstairs but suddenly turned again and drew his revolver. He aimed at Frederick's forehead and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired, so he bludgeoned Frederick unconscious with it. Bell, yelling "Murder! Murder!", ran outside for help. Fanny opened
19203-519: The medieval French referred to the Romanies as Égyptiens . These exonyms are sometimes written with capital letter, to show that they designate an ethnic group . However, the word is often considered derogatory because of its negative and stereotypical associations. The Council of Europe consider that "Gypsy" or equivalent terms, as well as administrative terms such as "Gens du Voyage" are not in line with European recommendations. In Britain, many Roma proudly identify as "Gypsies", and, as part of
19376-535: The moment of Lincoln's death, "a look of unspeakable peace came upon his worn features". The assembly knelt for a prayer, after which Stanton said either, "Now he belongs to the ages" or, "Now he belongs to the angels." On Lincoln's death, Vice President Johnson became the 17th president of the United States. The presidential oath of office was administered to Johnson by Chief Justice Salmon Chase sometime between 10 and 11 am. Booth had assigned Lewis Powell to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. On
19549-478: The morning of Good Friday , April 14, 1865, Booth went to Ford's Theatre to get his mail. While there, he was told by John Ford's brother that the President and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln would be attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre that evening, accompanied by General Ulysses S. Grant and his wife. He immediately set about making plans for the assassination, which included making arrangements with livery stable owner James W. Pumphrey for
19722-625: The nations by an angry God. According to one narrative, they were exiled from Egypt as punishment for allegedly harbouring the infant Jesus . In his book The Zincali: an account of the Gypsies of Spain , George Borrow notes that when they first appeared in Germany, it was under the character of Egyptians doing penance for their having refused hospitality to Mary and her son. As described in Victor Hugo 's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame ,
19895-404: The news of Lincoln's death. Elsewhere in the South, Lincoln was hated in death as in life, and Booth was viewed as a hero as many rejoiced at news of his deed. Other Southerners feared that a vengeful North would exact a terrible retribution upon the defeated former Confederate states. "Instead of being a great Southern hero, his deed was considered the worst possible tragedy that could have befallen
20068-480: The next day's funeral, sleeping on hotel floors and even resorting to blankets spread outdoors on the Capitol 's lawn. Prominent African American abolitionist leader and orator Frederick Douglass called the assassination an "unspeakable calamity". Great indignation was directed towards Booth as the assassin's identity was telegraphed across the nation. Newspapers called him an "accursed devil", "monster", "madman", and
20241-518: The night of the assassination, Seward was at his home on Lafayette Square , confined to bed and recovering from injuries sustained on April 5 from being thrown from his carriage. Herold guided Powell to Seward's house. Powell carried an 1858 Whitney revolver (a large, heavy, and popular gun during the Civil War) and a Bowie knife . William Bell , Seward's maître d' , answered the door when Powell knocked at 10:10 pm, as Booth made his way to
20414-478: The nine-car funeral train bearing Lincoln's body departed Washington on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad , arriving at Baltimore's Camden Station at 10 am, the first stop on a 13-day journey to Springfield, Illinois , its final destination. The funeral train slowly made its way westward through seven states, stopping en route at Harrisburg , Philadelphia , Trenton , New York , Albany , Buffalo , Cleveland , Columbus , Cincinnati , and Indianapolis during
20587-449: The northwest Indian origins, and also confirmed substantial Balkan and Middle Eastern ancestry. A study from 2001 by Gresham et al. suggests "a limited number of related founders, compatible with a small group of migrants splitting from a distinct caste or tribal group". The same study found that "a single lineage... found across Romani populations, accounts for almost one-third of Romani males". A 2004 study by Morar et al. concluded that
20760-623: The only one that wants to escape the draft " – was delivered instead as, "The draft has already been stopped by order of the President!" A member of the audience observed that Mary Lincoln often called her husband's attention to aspects of the action onstage, and "seemed to take great pleasure in witnessing his enjoyment". At one point, Mary whispered to Lincoln, who was holding her hand, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" Lincoln replied, "She won't think anything about it". In following years, these words were traditionally considered Lincoln's last, though N.W. Miner,
20933-399: The only plotter with a plausible chance of gaining access to the President, or at least to gain entry to the box without being searched for weapons first. Booth planned to shoot Lincoln at point-blank range with his single-shot Philadelphia Deringer pistol and then stab Grant at the theater. They were all to strike simultaneously shortly after ten o'clock. Atzerodt tried to withdraw from
21106-858: The only time with his brothers Edwin and Junius in a single engagement production of Julius Caesar at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York. He played Mark Antony and his brother Edwin had the larger role of Brutus in a performance acclaimed as "the greatest theatrical event in New York history." The proceeds went towards a statue of William Shakespeare for Central Park , which still stands today (2019). In January 1865, he acted in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in Washington, again garnering rave reviews. The National Intelligencer called Booth's Romeo "the most satisfactory of all renderings of that fine character", especially praising
21279-451: The part of Horatio in Hamlet , alongside his older brother Edwin in the title role . Afterward, Edwin led him to the theater's footlights and said to the audience, "I think he's done well, don't you?" In response, the audience applauded loudly and cried, "Yes! Yes!" In all, Booth performed in 83 plays in 1858. Booth said that, of all Shakespearean characters, his favorite role was Brutus ,
21452-548: The play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play, Lincoln died of his wounds the following day at 7:22 am in the Petersen House opposite the theater. He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated. His funeral and burial were marked by an extended period of national mourning. Near the end of the American Civil War , Lincoln's assassination
21625-413: The play progressed and shot the President in the back of the head with a .41 caliber Deringer pistol . Booth's escape was almost thwarted by Major Henry Rathbone , who was in the presidential box with Mary Todd Lincoln. Booth stabbed Rathbone when the startled officer lunged at him. Rathbone's fiancée Clara Harris was also in the box but was not harmed. Booth then jumped from the President's box to
21798-579: The plot, which to this point had involved only kidnapping, not murder, but Booth pressured him to continue. Despite what Booth had heard earlier in the day, Grant and his wife, Julia Grant , had declined to accompany the Lincolns, as Mary Lincoln and Julia Grant were not on good terms. Others in succession also declined the Lincolns' invitation, until finally Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris (daughter of U.S. Senator Ira Harris of New York ) accepted. At one point, Mary developed
21971-512: The poor. However, the luris ate the oxen and the wheat and came back a year later with their cheeks hollowed by hunger. The king, angered with their having wasted what he had given them, ordered them to pack up their bags and go wandering around the world on their donkeys. Linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that the roots of the Romani language lie in India: the language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages and shares with them
22144-410: The presidency, Booth seems to have intended to decapitate the Union government and throw it into a state of panic and confusion. In 1865, however, the second presidential successor would have been the president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate , Lafayette S. Foster , rather than Secretary Seward. The possibility of assassinating the Union Army's commanding general as well was foiled when Grant declined
22317-399: The prosecution of war against the South impossible, which was no doubt the legislature's intention. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus and imposed martial law in Baltimore and other portions of the state, ordering the imprisonment of many Maryland political leaders at Fort McHenry and the stationing of Federal troops in Baltimore. Many Marylanders, including Booth, agreed with
22490-439: The proto-Roma to groups in northwest India (specifically Punjabi and Gujarati samples), as well as, Dravidian-speaking groups in southeastern India (specifically Irula ). The paternal lineages of Roma are most common in southern and central India among Dravidian-speaking populations. The authors argue that this may point to a founder effect among the early Roma during their ethnogenesis or shortly after they migrated out of
22663-474: The right side of his face discolored. Maunsell Bradhurst Field wrote in a letter to The New York Times that Lincoln then started "breathing regularly, but with effort, and did not seem to be struggling or suffering." As he neared death, Lincoln's appearance became "perfectly natural" (except for the discoloration around his eyes). Shortly before 7 am Mary was allowed to return to Lincoln's side, and, as Dixon reported, "she again seated herself by
22836-470: The ruling of Marylander and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney , in Ex parte Merryman , that Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus in Maryland was unconstitutional . As a popular actor in the 1860s, Booth continued to travel extensively to perform in the North and South, and as far west as New Orleans. According to his sister Asia , Booth confided to her that he also used his position to smuggle
23009-484: The rural area's woods and swamps for Booth in the days following the assassination, as the nation experienced an outpouring of grief. On April 18, mourners waited seven abreast in a mile-long line outside the White House for the public viewing of the slain president, reposing in his open walnut casket in the black-draped East Room . A cross of lilies was at the head and roses covered the coffin's lower half. Thousands of mourners arriving on special trains jammed Washington for
23182-438: The same presidential box where he was later slain; she turned to him and said, "Mr. Lincoln, he looks as if he meant that for you." The President replied, "He does look pretty sharp at me, doesn't he?" On another occasion, Lincoln's son Tad saw Booth perform. He said that the actor thrilled him, prompting Booth to give Tad a rose. Booth ignored an invitation to visit Lincoln between acts. On November 25, 1864, Booth performed for
23355-400: The significant developments leading toward the emergence of New Indo-Aryan languages , thus indicating that the proto-Roma did not leave the Indian subcontinent until late in the second half of the first millennium. The first Romani people are believed to have arrived in Europe via the Balkans in the 13th or 14th century. Romani people began migrating to other parts of the continent during
23528-483: The slayer of a tyrant . Some critics called Booth "the handsomest man in America" and a "natural genius", and noted his having an "astonishing memory"; others were mixed in their estimation of his acting. He stood 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall, had jet-black hair, and was lean and athletic. Noted Civil War reporter George Alfred Townsend described him as a "muscular, perfect man" with "curling hair, like
23701-492: The sparsely settled area's lack of telegraphs and railroads, along with its predominantly Confederate sympathies. He thought that the area's dense forests and the swampy terrain of Zekiah Swamp made it ideal for an escape route into rural Virginia. At midnight, Booth and Herold arrived at Surratt's Tavern on the Brandywine Pike, 9 miles (14 km) from Washington, where they had stored guns and equipment earlier in
23874-574: The spot. Whether Booth made this request because he was not armed or considered Powell a better shot than himself (Powell, unlike Booth, had served in the Confederate Army and thus had military experience) is unknown. In any event, Powell refused for fear of the crowd, and Booth was either unable or unwilling to personally attempt to kill the president. However, Booth said to David Herold, "By God, I'll put him through." According to Ward Hill Lamon , three days before his death, Lincoln related
24047-599: The stage, many in the audience thought he was part of the play. Booth held his bloody knife over his head and yelled something to the audience. While it is traditionally held that Booth shouted the Virginia state motto, Sic semper tyrannis ! ("Thus always to tyrants") either from the box or the stage, witness accounts conflict. Most recalled hearing Sic semper tyrannis! but others – including Booth himself – said he yelled only Sic semper! Some did not recall Booth saying anything in Latin. There
24220-488: The stage, where he raised his knife and shouted " Sic semper tyrannis "— Latin for "Thus always to tyrants", attributed to Brutus at Caesar's assassination , also having been adopted as the state motto of Virginia, and mentioned in the new " Maryland, My Maryland ", future anthem of Booth's Maryland. According to some accounts, Booth added, "I have done it, the South is avenged!" Some witnesses reported that Booth fractured or otherwise injured his leg when his spur snagged
24393-433: The state by rail, and it requested that Lincoln remove the growing numbers of federal troops in Maryland. The legislature seems to have wanted to remain in the Union while also wanting to avoid involvement in a war against Southern neighbors. Adhering to Maryland's demand that its infrastructure not be used to wage war on seceding neighbors would have left the federal capital of Washington, D.C. , exposed, and would have made
24566-553: The streets, tossing his knife away at some point. He made his way to the Pennsylvania House Hotel by 2 am, where he obtained a room and went to sleep. Romani people The Romani people ( / ˈ r oʊ m ə n i / ROH -mə-nee or / ˈ r ɒ m ə n i / ROM -ə-nee ), also known as the Roma ( sg. : Rom ), are an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin who traditionally lived
24739-665: The supporting role of the Earl of Richmond in Richard III at Baltimore's Charles Street Theatre. The audience jeered at him when he missed some of his lines. He also began acting at Baltimore's Holliday Street Theater , owned by John T. Ford , where the Booths had performed frequently. In 1857 he joined the stock company of the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia , where he played for a full season. At his request, he
24912-523: The theater that evening for a performance of Our American Cousin . This provided him with an especially good opportunity to attack Lincoln since, having performed there several times, he knew the theater's layout and was familiar to its staff. Booth went to Mary Surratt's boarding house in Washington, D.C., and asked her to deliver a package to her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland. He also asked her to tell her tenant Louis J. Weichmann to ready
25085-575: The theatre invitation at his wife's insistence. Instead, the Grants departed Washington by train that evening for a visit to relatives in New Jersey . Booth had hoped that the assassinations would create sufficient chaos within the Union that the Confederate government could reorganize and continue the war if one Confederate army remained in the field or, that failing, would avenge the South's defeat. Booth had free access to all parts of Ford's Theatre as
25258-446: The theatre manager Harry Clay Ford, to George Olszewski, a National Park Service historian, includes: "Booth did not bore the hole in the door leading to the box [...]. The hole was bored by my father ... [to] allow the guard ... to look into the box". After spending time at the saloon during intermission, Booth entered Ford's Theatre one last time at 10:10 pm. In the theater, he slipped into Lincoln's box at around 10:14 p.m. as
25431-452: The then-recent abolition of slavery in the United States . Originally, Booth and his small group of conspirators had plotted to kidnap Lincoln to aid the Confederate cause. They later decided to murder him, as well as Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward . Although the Army of Northern Virginia , commanded by General Robert E. Lee , had surrendered to the Union Army four days earlier, Booth believed that
25604-417: The theory of their Central Indian origin and a subsequent migration to northwestern India. Though the retention of dental clusters suggests a break from central languages during the transition from Old to Middle Indo-Aryan, the overall morphology suggests that the language participated in some of the significant developments leading toward the emergence of New Indo-Aryan languages . The following table presents
25777-415: The variants dom and lom , which may be related to the Sanskrit words dam-pati (lord of the house, husband), dama (to subdue), lom (hair), lomaka (hairy), loman , roman (hairy), romaça (man with beard and long hair). Another possible origin is from Sanskrit डोम doma (member of a low caste of travelling musicians and dancers). Despite their presence in the country and neighboring nations,
25950-551: The woods nearby, Cox contacted Thomas A. Jones, his foster brother and a Confederate agent in charge of spy operations in the southern Maryland area since 1862. The War Department advertised a $ 100,000 reward ($ 1.99 million in 2024 USD) by order of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton for information leading to the arrest of Booth and his accomplices, and Federal troops were dispatched to search southern Maryland extensively, following tips reported by Federal intelligence agents to Colonel Lafayette C. Baker . Federal troops combed
26123-536: The word is not related in any way to the name of Romania. Romani is the feminine adjective, while Romano is the masculine adjective. Some Romanies use Rom or Roma as an ethnic name, while others (such as the Sinti, or the Romanichal) do not use this term as a self-description for the entire ethnic group. Sometimes, rom and romani are spelled with a double r , i.e., rrom and rromani . In this case rr
26296-422: The year as part of the kidnap plot. The duo then continued southward, stopping before dawn on April 15 for treatment of Booth's injured leg at the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd in St. Catharine , 25 miles (40 km) from Washington. Mudd later said that Booth told him the injury occurred when his horse fell. The next day, Booth and Herold arrived at the home of Samuel Cox around 4 am. As the two fugitives hid in
26469-426: Was "too impatient for hard study" and his "brilliant talents had failed of full development." Author Gene Smith wrote that Booth's acting may not have been as precise as his brother Edwin's, but his strikingly handsome appearance enthralled women. As the 1850s drew to a close, Booth was becoming wealthy as an actor, earning $ 20,000 a year (equivalent to $ 700,000 in 2023). Booth embarked on his first national tour as
26642-504: Was a center of clandestine Confederate activity. He spent ten days in the city, staying for a time at St. Lawrence Hall, a rendezvous for the Confederate Secret Service , and meeting several Confederate agents there. No conclusive proof has linked Booth's kidnapping or assassination plots to a conspiracy involving the leadership of the Confederate government, but historian David Herbert Donald states that "at least at
26815-753: Was billed as "J. B. Wilkes", a pseudonym meant to avoid comparison with other members of his famous thespian family. Jim Bishop wrote that Booth "developed into an outrageous scene stealer , but he played his parts with such heightened enthusiasm that the audiences idolized him." In February 1858, he played in Lucrezia Borgia at the Arch Street Theatre. On opening night, he experienced stage fright and stumbled over one of his lines. Instead of introducing himself by saying, "Madame, I am Petruchio Pandolfo", he stammered, "Madame, I am Pondolfio Pet—Pedolfio Pat—Pantuchio Ped—dammit! Who am I?", causing
26988-456: Was cold, they applied hot water bottles and mustard plasters while covering him with blankets. Later, more physicians arrived: Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes , Charles Henry Crane , Anderson Ruffin Abbott , and Robert K. Stone (Lincoln's personal physician). All agreed Lincoln could not survive. Barnes probed the wound, locating the bullet and some bone fragments. Throughout the night, as
27161-530: Was commanding an army in the west in mid-1863 and became overall commander in early 1864. Booth conceived a plan to kidnap Lincoln in order to blackmail the Union into resuming prisoner exchanges, and he recruited Samuel Arnold , George Atzerodt , David Herold , Michael O'Laughlen , Lewis Powell (also known as "Lewis Paine"), and John Surratt to help him. Surratt's mother, Mary Surratt , left her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland , and moved to
27334-464: Was covered, others weeping pitifully. "Who is dead in the White House?" I demanded of one of the soldiers, "The President," was his answer; "he was killed by an assassin." However, Lincoln later told Lamon that "In this dream it was not me, but some other fellow, that was killed. It seems that this ghostly assassin tried his hand on someone else." Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell wrote that dreams of assassination would not be unexpected, considering
27507-467: Was granted a divorce in 1851 on grounds of adultery, and Holmes legally wed Junius on May 10, 1851, John Wilkes' 13th birthday. Nora Titone suggests in her book My Thoughts Be Bloody (2010) that the shame and ambition of Junius Brutus Booth's actor sons Edwin and John Wilkes eventually spurred them to strive for achievement and acclaim as rivals—Edwin as a Unionist and John Wilkes as the assassin of Abraham Lincoln . Booth's father built Tudor Hall on
27680-441: Was in the crowd outside the White House when Lincoln gave an impromptu speech from his window. During the speech, Lincoln stated that he was in favor of granting suffrage to former slaves ; infuriated, Booth vowed to kill him and declared that it would be the last speech that Lincoln would ever make. On April 12, 1865, Booth heard the news that Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House . He told Louis J. Weichmann ,
27853-557: Was interested in the theater and in politics, and he became a delegate from Bel Air to a rally by the Know Nothing Party for Henry Winter Davis , the anti-immigrant party's candidate for Congress in the 1854 elections. Booth aspired to follow in the footsteps of his father and his actor brothers Edwin and Junius Brutus Jr. He began practicing elocution daily in the woods around Tudor Hall and studying Shakespeare. Booth made his stage debut at age 17 on August 14, 1855, in
28026-631: Was kept away. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton arrived. Stanton insisted that the sobbing Mrs. Lincoln leave the sick room, then for the rest of the night he essentially ran the United States government from the house, including directing the hunt for Booth and the other conspirators. Guards kept the public away, but numerous officials and physicians were admitted to pay their respects. Initially, Lincoln's features were calm and his breathing slow and steady. Later, one of his eyes became swollen and
28199-446: Was laughing at this line when Booth opened the door, stepped forward, and shot him from behind with his pistol. The bullet entered Lincoln's skull behind his left ear, passed through his brain, and came to rest near the front of the skull after fracturing both orbital plates . Lincoln slumped over in his chair and then fell backward. Rathbone turned to see Booth standing in gunsmoke less than four feet behind Lincoln; Booth shouted
28372-643: Was moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore", and that he had had the same dream before "nearly every great and important event of the War" such as the Union victories at Antietam , Murfreesboro , Gettysburg , and Vicksburg . On April 14, Booth's morning started at midnight. He wrote his mother that all was well but that he was "in haste". In his diary, he wrote that "Our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done". While visiting Ford's Theatre around noon to pick up his mail, Booth learned that Lincoln and Grant were to visit
28545-444: Was no longer welcome at his New York home. Booth also railed against Lincoln in conversations with his sister Asia. "That man's appearance, his pedigree, his coarse low jokes and anecdotes, his vulgar similes, and his policy are a disgrace to the seat he holds. He is made the tool of the North, to crush out slavery." Asia recalled that he decried Lincoln's re-election, "making himself a king", and that he went on "wild tirades" in 1865, as
28718-503: Was once thought to be a "sister language" of Romani, the two languages having split after the departure from the Indian subcontinent—but later research suggests that the differences between them are significant enough to treat them as two separate languages within the central zone ( Hindustani ) group of languages. The Dom and the Rom, therefore, likely descend from two migration waves from India separated by several centuries. In phonology ,
28891-536: Was one of the first leading men to appear there, playing in Charles Selby 's The Marble Heart . In this play, Booth portrayed a Greek sculptor in costume, making marble statues come to life. Lincoln watched the play from his box. At one point during the performance, Booth was said to have shaken his finger in Lincoln's direction as he delivered a line of dialogue. Lincoln's sister-in-law was sitting with him in
29064-461: Was only wounded, and Johnson's would-be attacker became drunk instead of killing the vice president. After a dramatic initial escape, Booth was killed at the end of a 12-day chase. Powell, Herold, Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt were later hanged for their roles in the conspiracy. John Wilkes Booth, born in Maryland into a family of prominent stage actors , had by the time of the assassination become
29237-475: Was part of a larger political conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the federal government . Conspirators Lewis Powell and David Herold were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward , and George Atzerodt was tasked with killing Vice President Andrew Johnson . Beyond Lincoln's death, the plot failed: Seward
29410-514: Was shot accidentally in his hotel, leaving a wound some thought would end his life. When the Civil War began on April 12, 1861, Booth was starring in Albany, New York . He was outspoken in his admiration for the South's secession, publicly calling it "heroic." This so enraged local citizens that they demanded that he be banned from the stage for making " treasonable statements". Albany's drama critics were kinder, giving him rave reviews. One called him
29583-481: Was staying at the Kirkwood House in Washington. Atzerodt was to go to Johnson's room at 10:15 pm and shoot him. On April 14, Atzerodt rented the room directly above Johnson's; the next day, he arrived there at the appointed time and, carrying a gun and knife, went to the bar downstairs, where he asked the bartender about Johnson's character and behavior. He eventually became drunk and wandered off through
29756-511: Was surprised to find little public sympathy for his action, especially from those anti-Lincoln newspapers that had previously excoriated the President in life. News of the assassination reached the far corners of the nation, and indignation was aroused against Lincoln's critics, whom many blamed for encouraging Booth to act. The San Francisco Chronicle editorialized: Booth has simply carried out what...secession politicians and journalists have been for years expressing in words...who have denounced
29929-428: Was the only well-known member of the conspiracy. Access to the theater's upper floor containing the Presidential Box was restricted, and Booth was the only plotter who could have realistically expected to be admitted there without difficulty. Furthermore, it would have been reasonable (but ultimately incorrect) for the plotters to have assumed that the entrance of the box would be guarded. Had it been, Booth would have been
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