Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. The family moved to Indiana and 8 year old Abe helped his father build another log house. A year later his mother died and the house was very empty. His father remarried and in addition to his sister Sarah, who was 3 years older, there were now 3 more children in the family.

Lincoln had less than a year of schooling. Books were scarce and so was paper. He worked his arithmetic problems on a board and cleaned the board with a knife so he could use it again.

The family owned a Bible and he spent many hours reading it. He would copy parts of it in order to memorize it. Sometimes he would walk for miles to borrow a book. One of his favorite books was "The Life of George Washington".

By the time he was 17, he knew he wanted to be a lawyer. He would walk 17 miles to the county courthouse in order to watch the lawyers work. He sat in the back of the courtroom and watched them as they shook their fists and became red in the face. Then he would go home and think about what he had seen.

Every time he got a new job he would try to work on a skill which would help him when he became a lawyer. When he was a shopkeeper he tried to be honest and fair. Once he
shortchanged * a woman by 6 cents, and he followed her home so he could give the money back to her.

When he was a postmaster, he tried to learn how to get along with people well.

When he was a surveyor; * a person who measured land, he tried to always be accurate in his measurements.

While he was working as a surveyor, he was elected to the Illinois legislature. *

He still wanted to be a lawyer. He would go without sleep in order to study. In 1836 he passed the test and became a lawyer.

He was inaugurated * president in March of 1861. Five weeks later the Civil War began. It was a fight about slavery. Lincoln had two main goals; he wanted to free the slaves and he wanted the United States to remain one nation. It was in danger of being divided into two nations; the North and the South.

He quoted from the Bible," A house divided against itself cannot stand." He was able to realize both of his goals. In 1863 he issued the Emancipation * Proclamation freeing the slaves in the Southern states, and the country was able to remain a united nation. Eventually all the slaves in the United States became free.

Lincoln died after being shot at a theater performance in Washington, D.C.