Abraham Lincoln (Biography)

                           Abraham Lincoln’s childhood

Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky (Hardin County is now LaRue County) on February 12, 1809. Then, Lincoln moved to Indiana at just seven years of age (1816). Two years later his mom Nancy Lincoln died because of milk sickness (1818) however he was very close to his stepmother. Abraham’s father was named Thomas Lincoln who was a farmer and a carpenter. Abraham Lincoln had only one sibling who was named Sarah Grigsby. Sarah Grigsby then died in her twenties at the exact same time when she was giving birth to her baby.

When Abraham Lincoln was born, his father Thomas Lincoln owned two Six-hundred acre farms, a couple of town lots, livestock and horses. Thomas Lincoln was in fact one of the richest men in the County. But, unfortunately in 1816 Thomas had a major downfall in which he lost all his land to court cases of faulty property title meaning that they did not have a legal document saying that the property belonged to them. For that was the reason in why their family moved to a free piece of land in Perry County, Indiana. In that land was where they made a new start.

When Lincoln was a pre-teen he majorly disliked the hard work in the frontier life. Some people both in his family and neighborhood considered Abraham Lincoln being lazy. Then as he grew into being a teen he had 100% full responsibility for all chores that were expected from teen males in a household at the time. Lincoln also became a very skilled axman in his work building rail fences. Lincoln was known as a brawn (has solid and strong muscles) person that’s willing to take bold risks especially when he was challenged to a wrestling match with one of the most competitive wrestlers in his neighborhood.  

                         Abraham Lincoln’s education

Abraham Lincoln had one year of school education however, throughout his life he has been taught by many different people. One of Abraham Lincoln’s passions as a child was reading books. They say that Abraham Lincoln would read and learn from any (and that means any) book that he can get his hands on. Abraham’s passion for reading began when his stepmother forced him to read books every day. After a while Lincoln began getting use to reading and at the same time, began enjoying books as well. Abraham Lincoln was majorly a self-educated man. Lincoln loved reading so much that even at night he would read with the light from the fire place. Sometimes Lincoln would even stop doing chores to read. Every time his father saw him reading instead of doing chores, he would scold Lincoln.  

Abraham Lincoln went to school at a really young age so he just basically learned the ABC’s and also how to read and write. At that time the schools he went to were called ABC schools or “Blab school”. The reason why Abraham is education was stopped was because he had no time to go to school; most of his time was dedicated to helping his father with the chores. One way that Lincoln practiced to write when he wasn’t in school was by writing on hickory bark. When the hickory got full of writing Lincoln would just take a drawknife and shave off all of the writing and then start writing again. After all, Abraham Lincoln was a keen reader. When he was older, his top favorite thing to read was the newspaper. But he also read other types of books and several of the books were about Shakespeare.

However Abraham Lincoln’s stepmother had another role that she also played in his education. His stepmother remembered poems (that her mother use to tell her in her childhood) even dough she did not know how to read. She also gave Lincoln three books to read.

As Abraham Lincoln became a teenager he was intrigued with the laws of the land and country so he started focusing and studying around that topic. Then, after he moved he became a lawyer. A way in which Abe remembered things when he was an adult was by keeping things in his hat. That hat he had was called “stovepipe hat”.

   Important event that impacted who Abraham Lincoln was

The most important event in Abraham Lincoln’s life was when he became the 16th president in November 6 of 1860. The reason why he being the president changed his life was because during his presidency he finally became successful and after so many chances that he had to become successful; every one of those chances were some how blown away. that  His vice president during his presidency was Andrew Johnson. Sadly his presidency only lasted five years until he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. The assassination happened around 10:15 in the late evening. The gun the Booth used to kill Lincoln was the .40 caliber Philadelphia derringer. Lincoln was shot behind his left ear. However, Lincoln was guarded by a major named Rathbone who went to grab booth before he through himself of the stand. But, Booth was also carrying a dagger in which he used to stab Rathbone with it. Then Rathbone quickly got up and Booth then stabbed him again. His killer John Wilkes Booth then hopped of the stand where Abraham Lincoln was sitting and broke his left leg. The crowd hadn’t noticed the gunshot because at the moment that Booth shot, the funniest line of the play made everyone in the theater laugh as loud as possible. Booth went across the stage saying, “Sic Semper Tyrannis” making his self look as if he were part of the play. Rathbone then screamed, “Stop him” the in which the crowd quickly reacted to catch Booth. Booth then limped towards the door and struck a man named Boroughs in the forehead with his dagger and then escaped on his horse also in which he kicked Boroughs in the face too.

          However Lincoln did not die instantly. Lincoln was taken to a boarding house across the street where he died the next day (April 15, 1865) at 7:22 a.m. Twelve days later Booth was surrounded by soldiers in the farm he had been hiding in with his partner Herold. Herold surrendered when he noticed all the soldiers surrounding the farm. Booth screamed, “You’ll never take me alive” and at that moment soldiers started shooting at the barn Booth was in. A soldier quietly came through behind the barn and shot Booth just one inch below the spot where Lincoln was shot. Booth died on the ground he was in 2 hours later. His 4 other partners were executed. Abraham Lincoln’s death is one of the biggest moments in history even today one and a half centuries in the future.

    How Abraham Lincoln is connected to our history (what he did)

Abraham Lincoln led our country through the civil war and still preserved the Union; meaning that he kept the United States together (even dough Abraham Lincoln supported the Union and not the Confederacy) instead of having it divided into two different countries; going through a Civil war while keeping your country together must have been very hard to do so this is a sign of true presidency and great leadership. Lincoln also bought Alaska from Russia which would have been different today if it weren’t for Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln also signed the Land grant Colleges act in 1862 which provided government grants for Universities at every state. Lincoln also presided over the formation of national banks which benefited us with a strong financial system all over the country. And, even when Abraham Lincoln was occupied fighting in the civil war, he tried his best to help out Juarez in Mexico by sending him 30,000 muskets to his army. This shows that a president’s leadership is not only caring for your country, but is also made up of caring for other countries too.

But one of the most important things that Lincoln is known for doing is freeing the slaves by creating the emancipation proclamation in the year of 1863. This was majorly important because slavery was a catastrophic event in which no human should ever go through. Slavery has broken apart millions of families and affected over fifteen million Africans. In account to slavery, Lincoln approved the thirteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. The thirteenth amendment was the amendment that abolished slavery (and involuntary servitude) in America; meaning that slavery would not be used anymore and that slavery would not be used in the United States anytime in the future as well. To the amendment, laws were made stating that whoever enslaved or had someone to serve them at force would be held with charges of slavery against them. Slaves were not freed immediately; they were freed after the thirteenth amendment was made. However the thirteenth amendment is final enactment was made after President Lincoln’s death. Lincoln has truly left many great precedents for future presidents to take into consideration.