The Slaves of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd

The untold story of the nine enslaved people who lived on Dr. Samuel A. Mudd's farm. Who were they and what did they witness during one of the most famous events in American history?

Hundreds of books have been written about the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the escape of John Wilkes Booth, and the trial of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd. Yet the people who lived and worked beside Dr. Mudd on his Southern Maryland tobacco farm have remained almost entirely forgotten.

This book tells their story.

Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was a thirty-two-year-old country physician and tobacco farmer living in Charles County, Maryland, when Booth arrived at his home seeking treatment for his broken leg after assassinating President Lincoln. Mudd was later convicted of conspiracy in the 1865 Lincoln assassination trial and sentenced to life imprisonment, serving nearly four years before receiving a presidential pardon from Andrew Johnson.

Slavery lay at the heart of Dr. Mudd's world. Like many Southern Maryland farmers, he depended upon enslaved labor and supported the institution of slavery that shaped both his livelihood and, ultimately, his fate.

Living and working on the Mudd farm were nine enslaved people whose names deserve to be remembered:

Elzee Eglent, Mary Simms, Milo Simms, Lettie Hall, Louisa Christie, Rachel Spencer, Richard Washington, Melvina Washington, and Frank Washington.

Although history has largely overlooked them, several became important witnesses in one of the most famous trials in American history.

Drawing upon original records preserved in the U.S. National Archives and other historical sources, historian Robert K. Summers reconstructs their lives and places them within the broader history of slavery in Southern Maryland. The book explores slavery in America, slavery in Charles County, the Mudd family's long involvement with slavery, and the daily lives of the men, women, and children who labored on the Mudd farm.

A major feature of the book is the complete, word-for-word testimony given by several of Dr. Mudd's enslaved workers during the 1865 Lincoln assassination trial. Rather than relying on modern summaries, readers can examine the witnesses' own testimony exactly as it appears in the official trial record.

The book also includes the remarkable recollections of young slave Lettie Hall, who was just thirteen years old when John Wilkes Booth arrived at the Mudd farm. Many years later, she described preparing Booth's breakfast and receiving the first money she had ever owned—a vivid firsthand memory of one of the most dramatic moments in American history.

While countless books have examined the famous figures surrounding Lincoln's assassination, The Slaves of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd shifts the focus to the ordinary people whose lives intersected with extraordinary events. It restores names, voices, and identities to individuals who have long remained in the shadows and offers readers a fresh perspective on one of the most studied episodes in American history.

For readers interested in Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, the Civil War, slavery in Maryland, African American history, and the Lincoln assassination, this book presents a compelling story grounded in original historical research and primary sources.