Tomorrow marks 150 years since John Wilkes Booth, offspring of a prominent Maryland family of actors, slipped through the back passages of Ford’s Theater in Washington to the President’s Box, and fired a .44-calibre pistol at President Lincoln’s head. Lincoln died the next morning at age 56.
Lincoln had a complicated relationship with Maryland, which stayed in the Union but was home to many Confederate sympathizers. Charles Mitchell, who compiled the sourcebook Maryland Voices of the Civil War, has looked closely at that relationship, examining it through primary documents and letters. Charles Mitchell joins Sheilah in the studio.
We spoke with Mr. Mitchell in 2009 about the end of slavery in Maryland.
habeascorpus_04_27.mp3
Our April 27, 2009, interview with Charles Mitchell about habeas corpus.
