Why Is John Wilkes Booth A Zealot

John Wilkes booth was a simple man. He was described by many to be an incredible actor. What he kept hidden from everyone close to him was his love for the south. He hated the north and the policies they were putting in place. He believed it was the black man’s destiny to be reigned over by the white man. The north and Abraham Lincoln thought otherwise. It was these differing values that brought John Wilkes Booth to kill Abraham Lincoln. Based on evidence in the book I believe John Wilkes Booth was a strong patriot of the South and certainly a zealot. He was not a madman or mentally insane, he was just a very strong supporter of the south. The book describes his motives for killing Lincoln as just pure hatred for the man and his policies. His original plan was to kidnap the president and smuggle him across the Potomac River to the south where they would be able to demand whatever they wanted from the north in exchange for their president. After learning that the north had won the war this ignited Booth to change his plans to black flag warfare. He hoped
the assignation of Lincoln would give the confederacy a reason to keep fighting. What led me to believe that John Wilkes booth was a zealot was the way in which he carefully planned this assassination.
He knew the exact times he needed to be where and when. He was fortunate enough to overhear fellow actors in fords theatre talking about how the president was going to be there. This allowed him to be able to focus on the one place Lincoln would be. He had performed at Ford’s many times and knew the passageways and stairways well. He devised the perfect entrance and escape and executed it the exact way he wanted to. I do not believe a madman would be able to design such an intricate plan and execute it in such a timely manner. Because he was so zealous for the southern cause he wanted to make sure everything was planned perfectly and it did. He accomplished his goal in killing Lincoln and escaping the city however the way the assignation was received flabbergasting to
him. Booth escapes Washington and gets to the Maryland swamps where he is waiting for Thomas Jones to give him the signal to cross the river. He waits there for several days each day the second day Thomas Jones brings him biscuits and newspapers. When Booth sees the newspapers he cannot believe what he is seeing. One newspaper the National Intelligencer that is the nations most anti-Lincoln paper is now calling Lincoln a true American hero. He thought he would be seen as the Southern Hero and instead they are calling him a coward. I think the fact that he shows so much anger in these scenes while reading the newspapers further proves that he is in fact a zealot. He is so angry because he devoted his life to the confederacy and their values and then when he commits the perfect crime in his eyes, killing the man that freed the slaves and ruined the south, he gets no praise whatsoever from the south. From beginning to end Booth pursues his belief in the Confederacy and their values. This created hatred for Abraham Lincoln not because he was a bad person just because he happened to fall on the opposing viewpoint. This hatred drove John Wilkes Booth to execute the first assassination in the history of the United States. Unfortunately the zealous Booth ended up with nothing to show for it. There was no uprising started in the south. John Wilkes Booth will be remembered as the man that killed Lincoln but nothing more. The nation fell into sorrow for their president had just been killed. The hatred shifted from Lincoln’s shoulders to Booth’s.