Abraham Lincoln

history · presidents · civil war · leadership

From Log Cabin to President. Lincoln grew up in a one-room log cabin in Kentucky and had almost no formal schooling, but he taught himself to read and became a lawyer and politician.

Fought to End Slavery. Lincoln believed slavery was deeply wrong, and during the Civil War he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared enslaved people in rebel states to be free.

Preserved the Union. When Southern states tried to leave the United States, Lincoln led the country through four years of brutal civil war to keep the nation together.

Famous Speeches. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural speech are among the most important speeches in American history, still studied and remembered today.

Tragic End. Just days after the Civil War ended in 1865, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at a theater in Washington, D.C.