John Surratt Jr.

John Surratt Jr. was a Confederate courier and associate of John Wilkes Booth who was accused of involvement in plots against Abraham Lincoln. The surviving record places this person within the historical events represented in Ann Rinaldi’s fiction.

Historical fiction may reconstruct private conversations, motives and emotional responses that sources do not preserve. The relationship is included because the person is portrayed under a real historical identity, while invented details should not be treated as documentary biography.