User:Becktron23/History Project

Abraham Lincoln

Summary

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) is one of the greatest men of all time. He was very useful during the Civil War. Lincoln also helped to end slavery and keep the Union from seceding or splitting apart. In 1834, Lincoln was elected to the Illinois General Assembly. Later on in his life he was elected to become President of the United States on November 6, 1860. He was reelected to be president on November 8, 1864. Lincoln was also the first U.S. president to be assassinated. Lincoln is known as the greatest president to ever serve. ^[1]

Early Life

On February 12, 1809 Abraham Lincoln was born to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. He was born near Hodgenville, Kentucky. As a young boy, he wanted to study law and he had several jobs such as rail splitting and being a postmaster. ^[2]The Lincoln family was not very wealthy. They lived in log cabins. Both of his parents were born in Virginia.^[3] Lincoln's father, Thomas Lincoln was a frontiers man. Thomas and Nancy had three children. One of which named Thomas died during infancy. In 1816 the Lincolns moved to Indiana because of problems with property rights. Life seemed to be harder in Indiana than in Kentucky. Two years after moving to Indiana, Nancy Lincoln died of "milk sickness". The cow that she had drank the milk from had eaten a poisonous snakeroot plant. Abraham Lincoln was only 10 years old when Nancy passed away.

Education

Although his family was poor, Lincoln tried extremely hard to attain knowledge while living on the farm. His family's poverty forced him to create his own textbook because books and paper were scarce. His childhood education was very limited but he was able to learn very much from books. ^[4] Abraham Lincoln first attended school when he was six years old. He was a very determined student. Lincoln loved to go to school and do his work. Because his family was poor and paper was hard to get, he did his arithmetic on a fire shovel. When it came to learning Abraham Lincoln was very enthusiastic.

Presidency

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He presidential term was from March 4,1861 to April 15, 1864. His vice presidents were Hannibal Hamlin and Andrew Jackson. Lincoln was also a part of the Illinois Republican Party. During his presidential campaign in 1858 between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln the main focus was on the slavery issue. Many people saw slavery not only as a wrong thing but also as a moral issue. January 1, 1863 Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves that were a part of the Confederacy. After Lincoln won his re-election in 1864 the Civil War came to an end. ^[5] On Friday April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre by an actor by the name of John Wilkes Booth. Booth thought he would be helping the South by killing Lincoln but in turn there was no more peace in the South.

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