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Abraham's birth
Lincoln was born in Kentucky and he was the son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. -
Lincoln's education
When Lincoln was young he used to work as a farmer while in the meantime he studied on his own to get all the knowledge he could. -
Abraham in army
In 1830 he moved to New Orleans where he joined the army and reached the colonelcy of the captain. -
The beginning of Lincoln's career
In 1834 he was elected as a member of the Illinois parliament until 1840 -
Lincoln's career
In 1837 he became a lawyer, in 1844 he became the Whig Party leader and in 1846 he became a Congressman. -
Lincoln's return in politics
In 1849, he left government to resume his law practice, but angered by the success of Democrats in opening the prairie lands to slavery, reentered politics in 1854. -
Lincoln leads the Republican Party
He became a leader in the new Republican Party and gained national attention in 1858 for debating national Democratic leader Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 Illinois Senate campaign -
Lincoln becomes President
He then ran for President in 1860, sweeping the North and winning. -
People's reaction to Lincoln's presidency
Southern pro-slavery elements took his win as proof that the North was rejecting the constitutional rights of Southern states to practice slavery. They began the process of seceding from the union. To secure its independence, the new Confederate States of America fired on Fort Sumter, one of the few U.S. forts in the South. Lincoln called up volunteers and militia to suppress the rebellion and restore the Union. -
Lincoln confronts his enemies
As the leader of the moderate faction of the Republican Party, Lincoln confronted Radical Republicans, who plotted his assassination. Lincoln fought the factions by pitting them against each other, by distributing political patronage, and by appealing to the American people. His Gettysburg Address became an iconic call for nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. -
Lincoln ends slavery
He suspended habeas corpus, and he averted British intervention. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, including the selection of generals and the naval blockade that shut down the South's trade. As the war progressed, he maneuvered to end slavery, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863; ordering the Army to protect escaped slaves, encouraging border states to outlaw slavery, and pushing through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. -
Abraham's death
Lincoln managed his own re-election campaign. He sought to reconcile his damaged nation by avoiding retribution against the secessionists. A few days after the Battle of Appomattox Court House, he was shot by John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, on April 14, 1865, and died the following day.