Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

16th president of the United States of America

Abraham was born February 12, 1809 to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln in a one-room log cabin in Southeast Kentucky. Abraham had one sister, Sarah, and one brother Thomas, who died in infancy.

Abraham's mom died from milk sickness when he was only nine years old, but soon after his dad re-married to Sarah Bush Johnston, who Abraham became very close to and called "mother".

• Lincoln's education consisted of about 18 months of classes from several teachers, but he was mostly self educated.

• Both his parents were almost completely illiterate, and he received very little education.

• He said that, as a boy, he had gone to school very little and his entire schooling equaled out to no more than one year's attendance.

By the time Lincoln was 21, he was off starting a life on his own.

In 1840, Lincoln became engaged to Mary Todd, who was from a wealthy slave-holding family in Lexington, Kentucky

• Their first child,Robert Todd Lincoln was born in 1843, which was the only one to live past age 18.

• Edward Baker Lincoln was born in 1846, and died on February 1, 1850

• William "Willie" Wallace Lincoln was born 11 months later on December 21. But, Willie died at the age of 11 on February 20, 1862.

The Lincolns' fourth son, Thomas "Tad" Lincoln, was born on April 4, 1853.

In 1834, he won election to the state legislature after a bipartisan campaign, even though he ran as a Whig. He then decided to become a lawyer, and began teaching himself law by reading Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England and other books too. Lincoln's description of his learning method was: "I studied with nobody." He served four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives as a Whig representative from Sangamon County.

In 1846, Lincoln was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served one two-year term.

In 1858 Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senator. He lost the election, but he gained a national reputation that won him the Republican nomination for president in 1860.

• As president, he built the republican Party into a strong national organization.

• On January 1, 1863 he issued the Emancipation Proclemation that declared forever those slaves within the Confederacy.

On October 16, 1854, in his "Peoria Speech," Lincoln declared his opposition to slavery which he repeated to the presidency.

They married on November 4th,1842

On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected as the sixteenth president of the United States.