So in continuing with American History Month AKA Black History Month, I have chosen an outstanding American to recognize, on his birthday!
That's right, our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky. To understand Lincoln, first you must know his family. Thomas Lincoln, moved to Kentucky at an early age with his family. Shortly after their move to Kentucky from Virginia the family was ambushed by a Native American War Party in 1786. Thomas with his brothers and sisters, watched as their Father(Abraham Lincoln, namesake to the afore mentioned 16th President Abraham Lincoln) was brutally killed defending his family and home. Thomas was left to make his own way on the frontier, and that he did. Thomas bought and sold several farms, including "Knob Creek Farm". Married Nancy Hanks and started a family. The family attended a Separate Baptists church, which had restrictive moral standards and opposed alcohol, dancing, and slavery. Thomas enjoyed considerable status in Kentucky—where he sat on juries, appraised estates, served on country slave patrols, and guarded prisoners. By the time his son Abraham was born, Thomas owned two 600-acre (240 ha) farms, several town lots, livestock, and horses. He was among the richest men in the county. However, in 1816, Thomas lost all of his land in court cases because of faulty property titles.
The family moved north across the Ohio River to free (i.e., non-slave) territory and made a new start in what was then Perry County but is now Spencer County, Indiana. Lincoln later noted that this move was "partly on account of slavery" but mainly due to land title difficulties. In Indiana, when Lincoln was nine, his mother Nancy died of milk sickness in 1818. After the death of Lincoln's mother, his older sister, Sarah, took charge of caring for him until their father remarried in 1819; Sarah later died in her 20s while giving birth to a stillborn son.
Sounds like a pretty crappy go of things right? Like the cards were stacked against him and that he may as well just give up... But he never did, never settling for just circumstance or "the way it is" he rose against obstacle after obstacle.
As a "Pre-Teen" he was considered scrawny and lazy due to the fact he didn't exactly enjoy the hardships of frontier living. However as a Teen and Young Man, he grew into his own, taking on all chores of the home and even giving all earning's he made outside the home to his father until he was 21 years of age(as was customary of the time). Thomas Lincoln's new wife was the widow Sarah Bush Johnston, the mother of three children. Lincoln became very close to his stepmother, and referred to her as "Mother". He attained a reputation for brawn and audacity after a very competitive wrestling match to which he was challenged by the renowned leader of a group of ruffians, "the Clary's Grove boys". As an ambitious 22-year-old, Lincoln decided to seek a better life and struck out on his own. Canoeing down the Sangamon River, Lincoln ended up in the village of New Salem in Sangamon County. In the spring of 1831, hired by New Salem businessman Denton Offutt and accompanied by friends, he took goods by flatboat from New Salem to New Orleans via the Sangamon, Illinois, and Mississippi rivers. After arriving in New Orleans—and witnessing slavery firsthand—he walked back home.
Now Lincoln was never regarded as a "School Learned" young man, self educated he loved to read. Reading and often re-reading books like The Bible, Aesop's Fables, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Robinson Crusoe. In spite of only having been Self-Educated, Lincoln became a Country Lawyer, a Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator during the 1830s, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives during the 1840s. Not to mention, the 16th President of the United States. Serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln successfully led the United States through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued on September 22, 1862, and put into effect on January 1, 1863, declared free the slaves in 10 states not then under Union control. This changed history forever!
On April 14th at approximately 10:13pm, while attending the play "Our American Cousin" at the Henry Ford Theatre, Lincoln was Assassinated by well-known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland, John Wilkes Booth. Booth snuck up behind the President as he sat in his state box in the balcony and with a single shot, point blank to the back of Lincoln's head killed our 16th President. Major Henry Rathbone momentarily grappled with Booth, but Booth stabbed him and escaped. After being on the run for 10 days, Booth was tracked down and found on a farm in Virginia, some 70 miles (110 km) south of Washington, D.C. After a brief fight with Union troops, Booth was killed by Sergeant Boston Corbett on April 26.
Lincoln's story is a fantastic one, and I have barely scratched the surface! Only touching on particular high points. To learn more about this Great American Leader, Father, Husband and Hero, please visit your local library.
"SUPER HERO!!!"
Thank you for your time, please remember to leave a comment if you are so inspired.
"Cheers!"
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