Pages

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Finding the Right Sources

Finding sources for Mary Surratt has been easy. Finding time to read through them this week, not so much.

This week has been one of the most stressful of my life. I have been working on the fall play (I was cast as Rosencrantz in the school production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead), and the show has taken over my life. Finding time to sit down and read through my sources for this paper (or any of the papers that I'm supposed to be writing right now - I have five on the docket) has been nigh on impossible.

That being said, I have flipped through all my sources at least once, so I have a vague idea of what sources will be useful to me.

My idea of what I want to write on, at the moment, is this: Mary Surratt was innocent of plotting to kill Abraham Lincoln. While she might have known about the prior plot to kidnap the president and hold him for ransom, that has no bearing on what she was tried for. Therefore, I only wish to examine her innocence for the charges placed against her: conspiring to assassinate the President of the United States.

As far as primary documents go, the trial transcripts are my best source of information. However, all of the documents are kept on microfiche at the National Archives and are very difficult to obtain. Therefore, I am mostly able to find them through secondary sources, such as Theodore Roscoe's The Web of Conspiracy, which devotes multiple pages solely to reprinting the testimony of Surratt and other witnesses. The other primary sources that I think might be helpful are newspapers. James L. Swanson and Daniel R. Weinberg's Lincoln's Assassins is complete with full-color photographs of many of the primary documents of the time period, which I would not have been able to obtain otherwise.

As for secondary documents, the two that I think will end up being the most helpful to me are the two biographies of Surratt: Elizabeth Steger Trindall's Mary Surratt: An American Tragedy, and Kate Clifford Larson's The Assassin's Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln. Trindall argues for Surratt's innocence, while Larson argues for her guilt, so it will be interesting to see both sides of the argument. I also look forward to reading through Louis Weichmann's book on the trial and conspiracy, A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and of the Conspiracy of 1865. Because Weichmann was the leading witness against Surratt at her trial, it will be valuable to see his testimony as he has written it.

As I have suspected from day one, James L. Swanson's Manhunt has been an invaluable resource to me, providing me with one of the most well-organized bibliographies I have ever seen and helping me to organize my timeline of the assassination, arrests, and trial. I owe Swanson a great debt - not only for sparking my original interest in the assassination, but providing such a well-structured understanding of it as well.

I look forward to being able to interact more with my sources this week and next. The play is finally wrapping tomorrow night (I'm both sad and happy about this - as I am about most things coming to an end), but the good thing is that I will finally have time to get some hardcore research done!

6 comments:

  1. I think you are very wise to look to an author's bibliography for more information on your topic. It is one of my favorite ways to find other sources. I hope you'll find more time for research now that the play is ending. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Tusa! I'm hoping that, with more free time (and marginally more sleep), I'll be able to accomplish more this week than I have been getting done!

      Delete
  2. It sounds like we have really similar predicaments, Angeline:)
    There seems to be no end to good primary and secondary sources about the conspirators involved in the Lincoln assassination. However, depending on your particular focus, this can actually be quite a problem. Finding the time to read through every book, article, or essay just to find the few parts that pertain to your thesis is hard work, but I am sure you and I both will have great papers for it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Holly! I agree - it seems like everyone and their grandmother had an opinion on the conspirators' guilt or innocence! But I think sitting down and reading through material will definitely pay off. I can't wait to see what conclusions you draw about Dr. Mudd!

      Delete
  3. It sounds like you've done more research than you say! I think it's great that you've found so many primary sources, because those are pretty invaluable. Good luck with the rest of your resources!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Maggie! Good luck to you on your paper, as well!

      Delete