1. A Brief History of Abrahan Lincoln Lincoln once said, “The things I want to know are in books. My best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.”

2. Early Life Abraham Lincoln was born on Feb. 12, 1809 in Hodgenville, Ky. They moved a couple of times and lived in Ohio for awhile. In 1818 his mother, Nancy died. His father, Thomas remarried just a year later. Abe and his sister quickly grew to love their stepmother, Sarah. In all, his schooling did not add up to a year, but he made up for it by reading. By the time Abe was 14 he would often read at night by the light of the log fire.

3. Before Lincoln’s Precidency When Lincoln was 19 years old he traveled to New Orleans and saw slavery up close for the first time. Lincoln held many jobs early in his life including a store owner and a surveyor. He became interested in law and earned his law license in 1837. In 1847 Lincoln went to Washington, D.C., as a representative from Illinois. In 1858 he became the Senator for Illinois.

4. Lincoln’s Presidency On Nov. 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected 16th president of the United States. Secession began on Dec. 20, 1860, when South Carolina withdrew from the Union. In his inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1861, Lincoln assured the South that he would respect its rights, that there was no need for war. On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began when Confederate forces fired on U.S. troops at Fort Sumter. Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. In 1865 Lincoln urged Congress to approve the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which outlawed slavery in the United States. On April 9, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate army to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and the Civil War was over. Lincoln died on April 15, 1865, the morning after he was shot by john Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater.

5. After the Presidency A funeral train carried the president's body back home to Springfield, Ill., where he lies buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery. The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., was dedicated to him in 1922.

7. Resources Lincoln, Abraham. ( 2010). In Compton's by Britannica. Retrieved December 8, 2010, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online School Edition: http://www.school.eb.com/comptons/article-203884 White House: Presidents. ( n.d.) . Retrieved from December 5, 2010. http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln Stevenson, Augusta. (1932) Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipator. New York, New York.