Set against the backdrop of the Civil War,The Assassin's Accomplicetells the story of the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln through the eyes of its only female participant, Mary Surratt, the first woman ever to be executed by the federal government of the United States.
Based on long-lost interviews, confessions, and court testimony, this book reveals Mary's deep complicity in the murder plot, and explores how Mary's actions defied nineteenth-century norms of femininity, piety, and motherhood, leaving her vulnerable to deadly punishment historically reserved for men.
