Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States. He presided during the Civil War, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, initiated Reconstruction, and was assassinated shortly after beginning his second term as president. Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. In 1830, Lincoln’s family moved to Mason County, Illinois where he got a job as working on a river flatboat moving freight down the Mississippi river to New Orleans. He also worked as a shopkeeper and a postmaster. Lincoln had little formal education and his schooling was very limited in local schools. When he wasn’t in school he was working for his father’s on his farm to help support his family. Lincoln taught himself law and studied for a seat on the Illinois State Legislature. He took the bar examination in 1836 and won. He won the presidential election without the support of the southern states and one of the reasons, that following year, the Civil War broke out. For the next few years he worked as a lawyer, serving residents of small towns and national railroad lines. Lincoln met, a Kentucky belle, Mary Todd. They married in 1842 and had four boys but only one of them lived to adulthood. His youngest son Willie died in 1862 of typhoid fever. His death was difficult for Abraham and his family.

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln had to manage conflicting pressures and politicians on the issues of slavery. Lincoln made the decision to fight and not let the Southern states secede because it was the duty to preserve the Union. After the battle of Antietam, On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation the declared slaves free