The Slaves of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd

By Robert K. Summers

Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was a young 32-year-old country doctor who lived with his wife and children on a tobacco farm in Charles County, Maryland, about 30 miles south of Washington, D.C. He was one of eight persons convicted of conspiracy in the 1865 Lincoln assassination trial, and served almost four years of a life sentence before receiving a pardon from President Andrew Johnson in 1869.

Slavery was the underlying cause of Dr. Mudd's troubles. Like many of his fellow farmers and neighbors, as well as half of the country's population, he was a staunch supporter of slavery and the Confederate cause aimed at preserving it. His association with the assassin John Wilkes Booth, another ardent supporter of slavery and the Confederate cause, ultimately led to his arrest and conviction in the Lincoln assassination trial.

The historical record contains very little information about the individual lives of America's slaves. Prior to the Civil War and emancipation, about the only records of enslaved individuals were entries in wills or probate files, where they were listed as property. The first public record that identified formerly enslaved persons by their names and other vital statistics was the 1870 Federal Census, five years after the Civil War concluded.

The names of Dr. Mudd's slaves were Elzee Eglent, Mary Simms, Milo Simms, Lettie Hall, Louisa Christie, Rachel Spencer, Richard Washington, Melvina Washington, and Frank Washington.

Some of Dr. Mudd's slaves provided testimony at the trial. Their word-for-word accounts, taken from the records of the U.S. National Archives, are included in this book. 13-year-old Lettie Hall did not give testimony at the trial, but many years later she gave a newspaper interview in which she told how she prepared breakfast for John Wilkes Booth when he came to the Mudd farm after the assassination of President Lincoln, and the tip he gave her which was the first money she ever had. Her interview is included in this book.

Hundreds of books have been written about the Lincoln assassination, providing detailed accounts of all the main characters in the story. This small book provides accounts of lesser known, but also important characters in the story - the slaves of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F384WCPR
• ISBN13: 9798316254804
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 114 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"