On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, in Virginia, officially marking the end of the Civil War. The end of the war did not please many Southern sympathizers. There was a guest who attended both Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address and his final Reconstruction speech, that guest was watching Lincoln's actions very closely and, in fact, had been following him for a long time. Booth assassinated Lincoln at Ford's Theater on the day John Wilkes Booth was the ninth of ten children of his father Junius Booth. The Booth family had a history in acting and many were famous celebrities. John Wilkes Booth made his debut at the age of seventeen. His first act was performing in a production of Richard III. The Booth family owned a farm in Bel Air, Maryland and owned numerous slaves. The fact that the Booth family owned slaves shows that John Booth was raised with the same mindset as a Southern slave owner, effectively causing him to become a Southern sympathizer. Considering the fact that Booth was a Southern sympathizer, it stands to reason that he would have hated Lincoln. His political views were essentially the opposite of Lincoln's, while Booth supported the institution of slavery and Lincoln strongly opposed it. Unlike John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln did not come from a wealthy family. Lincoln, in fact, was born on a poor farm in Kentucky where he was forced to do manual labor for his father. Lincoln, however, did not want to spend his life doing manual labor for a very low income. He wanted better for himself and essentially taught himself to read. Once Lincoln learned to read it, it allowed him to become someone high-level... middle-level... How exactly would they do this? Staff and students work to advance life in the area through their teaching, research and service. Lincoln may be gone, but his legacy will live on forever. Works Cited Flayderman, Norm. Flayderman's Guide to Antique American Firearms...and Their Values.Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2001. Print.Gienapp, William E. Abraham Lincoln, and Civil War America: A Biography. New York: Oxford UP, 2002. Print."Mary Todd Lincoln." EShistory. Ohio State University. Network. April 22, 2014..Schehl, Sally A. and Carlo J. Rosati. "The Booth Deringer: Authentic Artifact or Replica?" Forensic Science Communications 3.1 (January 2001). Smith, Richard N. "Deringer." Ford Theater. Network. April 22. 2014..