Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 - April 15, 1865)
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States of America until his assassination in 1865.
Childhood: Abraham Lincoln was on Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky. As a child Lincoln didn't care for hard work, leading some of his family to label him as lazy. As a teenager, he took on more responsibility helping his family with chores especially as an axe man building rail fences. As Lincoln grew older, his relationship with his father waned, partly due to his father's poor academic education. Lincoln himself took classes over the course of a year before turning to self-education by reading many books he got from his village. At the age of 22, Lincoln left his family to canoe the Sangamon River, which led Lincoln to the village of New Salem. Here he found a job taking goods from New Salem to New Orleans by flatboat, however he walked back home once he witnessed slavery in New Orleans.
Political career: Abraham Lincoln's political journey started in the early 1830s as he became a dedicated steadfast Whig where he spoke out against slavery and the Mexican-American war. Lincoln was a skilled and successful lawyer as well as a politician. Using what was left of the old Whig party in 1851, Lincoln helped build the new Republican Party. Lincoln ran for presidency in May 1860 and was successfully elected on November 6th of the same year, making him the first Republican president. Lincoln was an uncompromising leader, aiming to abolish slavery despite other politicians' attempts to sway his idea on the subject. Lincoln achieved his goal by putting into effect The Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st 1863, which declared the freedom of slaves in ten states not then under union control, making the demise of slavery a military objective in the civil war. Lincoln and the North won the war against the Southern states where slavery was still in place, thus eradicating slavery from America.
Death: Following Lincoln's speech advocating voting rights for black people, John Wilkes Booth, who opposed Lincoln's views, shot Lincoln in the back of the head at the Ford's Theatre on April 14th 1865, while he watched the play 'Our American Cousin'.
Religion: While believing in an omnipotent God, Lincoln never aligned himself with a religion. He was private about his believes, and open to others. He used religious language and quoted the bible, however it's unclear whether he truly believed or just used this to appeal to Protestants.
Biography by Contactmusic.com