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Arts & Culture

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln

Signature graphic with Abraham Lincoln for the film, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE “The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln.”
Courtesy of WGBH Educational Foundation
Signature graphic with Abraham Lincoln for the film, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE “The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln.”

Airs Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017 at 8 p.m. on KPBS TV

On March 4, 1865, at the United States Capitol, a crowd of 50,000 listened as President Lincoln delivered his classic second inaugural address, urging charity and forgiveness to a nation in the final throes of war.

Just two months later, a train, nine cars long and draped in black bunting, pulled slowly out of a station in Washington, DC. Dignitaries and government officials crowded the first eight cars. In the ninth rode the body of Abraham Lincoln - America's first assassinated president.

Some seven million people would line the tracks or file past the casket to bid an emotional farewell to the martyred president. But as the funeral train made its way across nine states and through hundreds of cities and towns, the largest manhunt in history was closing in on Lincoln's assassin, the famous actor John Wilkes Booth.

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"The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln" recounts a great American drama: two tumultuous months when the joy of peace was shattered by the heartache of assassination. At the heart of the story are two figures who define the extremes of character: Lincoln, who had the strength to transform suffering into infinite compassion, and Booth, who allowed hatred to curdle into destruction.

President Abraham Lincoln
Courtesy of Ark Media
President Abraham Lincoln

“When people wept for Lincoln, or when they went to their diaries and they drew black around the pages of those days, they were really weeping for themselves,” said historian David W. Blight. “They were weeping for their own kids. They were weeping for their own losses in the War.”

“It was with the assassination that the myth of Abraham Lincoln was born,” added James L. Swanson, author of "Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer." “Lincoln was not universally liked or beloved during his presidency. Millions of people hated him. Once he was assassinated, everything changed.”

WATCH ON YOUR SCHEDULE:

Episodes from this series are available for online viewing for a limited time after each broadcast. Extend your viewing window with KPBS Passport, video streaming for members ($60 yearly) using your computer, smartphone, tablet, Roku, AppleTV, Amazon Fire or Chromecast. Learn how to activate your benefit now.

"The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" is available on DVD from PBS at ShopPBS.org.

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CREDITS:

An Ark Media Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Written, produced and directed by Barak Goodman. Edited by Sari Gilman. Director of Photography: Stephen McCarthy. Music by Joel Goodman. Narrated by Chris Cooper. AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is a production of WGBH Boston. Senior Producer: Susan Bellows. Executive Producer: Mark Samels.