The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was a tragic and horrific event. The way the country was highly divided at the time influenced how the events of the assassination unfolded before, during, and after the evil event. Long before the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Union and Confederacy disagreed about everything which was why they were sorely divided because they shared different visions of how the country should be run. The Union believed that it would be easy for a member of the Confederacy to feel the need to hatch an evil plan to assassinate the Union leader, Abraham Lincoln. The Confederates believed that by assassinating Abraham Lincoln their message would be heard throughout the country. Which in fact happened because no one believed that a president could be killed in such a horrible way. John Wilkes Booth, was born on May 10, 1838. He was an actor who performed in many different plays throughout the country. He was also the main protagonist of some of William Shakespeare's most famous works. John was a racist and Southern sympathizer during the Civil War. He didn't like Abraham Lincoln very much, because Abraham represented everything that Booth was against. Booth and his group were planning to kidnap Abraham Lincoln and take him to Richmond and lock him up in exchange for all the Confederate prisoners who were present in the war. On March 17, 1865, the group planned to capture Lincoln who was scheduled to attend a theater performance at a hospital located on the outskirts of Washington. However, the president changed plans and remained in the capital. Therefore, Booth's plan to kidnap Lincoln failed. (Page 1/Paragraph 3)If the confederates went so far as to kidnap the president, why would it be strange if they killed Ab... middle of the paper... theories of course there are many of them. “The Simple Conspiracy Theory” is a simple conspiracy. This theory states that John Wilkes Booth and a small group of friends were planning to kidnap the president. They finally changed their minds, wanted to make a big statement, and came up with a plan to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. The conspirators also wanted to assassinate Vice President Johnson and Secretary of State Seward at the same time, as this would mean a serious downfall for the US government. The goal of John Wilkes Booth and his group was to give the South a chance to rise again and be in the lead as it once was. John Wilkes Booth considered himself a hero. John Wilkes Booth had a diary and in that diary he stated, "Abraham Lincoln was a 'tyrant,' and that he should be praised just as Brutus was for killing Julius Caesar".”.