Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 in Kentucky and was assassinated in 1865 in Washington D.C. He had a difficult childhood, moving frequently and losing his mother at a young age. He became a lawyer in Illinois and entered politics, disagreeing with Andrew Jackson's view of limited government. During his presidency, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and sought to restore Southern states to the Union after the Civil War, though his exact plans were unclear.

1. Abraham LincolnHunter Armendt

2. Short LifeAbraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809 near Hodgenville Kentucky.He was assassinated April 15, 1865 in Washington DC.

3. Childhood and YouthIn December 1816, as a young boy, his family was faced with a lawsuit challenging the ownership of their farm, they then moved to southwestern Indiana.A few years later his mother died in the autumn of 1818, this was by far the saddest period of his childhood.

4. Prairie LawyerHe moved to Springfield, Illinois and became lawyer.Within a few years he began making $1,200 to $1,500 annually. At the time the Governor of State earned $1,200 annually and circuit judges earned $750 annually.

5. Private LifeWhile residing in New Salem, Lincoln became acquainted with Ann Rutledge. Apparently he was fond of her, and he grieved with the entire community at her untimely death, in 1835, at the age of 22. Afterward, stories were told of a grand romance between Lincoln and Rutledge, but these stories are not supported by historical evidence.

6. Early PoliticsWhen Lincoln first entered politics, Andrew Jackson was president. Lincoln shared the sympathies that the Jacksonians professed for the common man, but he disagreed with the Jacksonian view that the government should be divorced from economic enterprise. “The legitimate object of government,” he was later to say, “is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot do so well, for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities.”

7. Civil Rights MovementsAt the end of the war, Lincoln's policy for the defeated South was not clear in all its details, though he continued to believe that the main object should be to restore the “seceded States, so-called,” to their “proper practical relation” with the Union as soon as possible.In 1862 President Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation.