Abraham Lincoln (the man who freed the slaves)

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth President of the united states of America. He is chiefly remembered for getting rid of slavery and for uniting the States of America. Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 on a small farm in Kentucky. He came from a humble background. His father was a farmer. When Abraham Lincoln was eight years old his father decided to move farther west. The whole family took all their possessions with them and arrived in Indiana, which was a state with many forests. Young Abraham Lincoln learnt how to use an axe and he spent a lot of time working in the forests. At first he had to help his father to build a house out of logs. Then they had to clear the forest land of trees and rocks and make the ground ready for planting crops. Their chief crop was corn. Abraham Lincoln was so busy that he had no time to go to school. He sepnt his childhood doing all sorts of jobs like that of a farm labourer,boat-hand,log-chopper and the keeper of a tiny store. He was also a village postmaster for some time and he carried all the letters in his hat! His mother taught him how to read. She inspired him greatly and her advice to him was to 'learn all he could and be of some account in the world'. In the evening after the day's work was over, Abraham Lincoln liked to spend some time with his books.

When Abraham Lincoln was a lad of sixteen he heard that a person living near their house had a book on the life of George Washington. He was very interested in reading it and he begged the owner of the book to lend it to him for a new days.Abraham Lincoln was given the book, but unfortunately for him a day later rain soaked through Abraham Lincoln's log-cabin and ruined the book ! The poor lad was very upset as he did not have the money to buy another book and return it to the owner. S Abraham Lincoln went to the man's farm and offered his free service till the cost of the book was made up. The farmer was so impressed with the young boy's sincerity that when finally Abraham Lincoln had worked hard enough to make up the cost of the book the farmer presented him with the volume ! Imagine Abraham Lincoln's joy when he received this wonderful gift ! he had won it through hard labour.

Abraham Lincoln and slavery

When he reached the age of twenty-one his father sent him on a journey to a town called New Orleans. This was a place nearly two thousand miles away from Abraham Lincoln’s home in Indiana. Abraham Lincoln and his friend went on the journey together. They got a small boat ready and loaded it with stores and provisions, enough to last them for a long time. They paddled down the Ohio River and then came to the wide Mississippi River.

On the journey Abraham Lincoln and his friend had many adventures, but what he could never forget was the sight of the slaves. One day Abraham Lincoln and his friend watched the sale of a Negro girl in a slave market. The sight made Abraham Lincoln sad. Turning to his friend he said,

‘Let’s get out of here; if I ever get a chance to hit that thing (meaning slavery) I’ll hit it hard.

This was the first time Abraham Lincoln came to know about the miserable conditions of the slaves. Abraham Lincoln had not seen slaves before, and as they passed through the great cotton plantations he saw them working in the fields. Sometimes in the evening, when they stopped their boat at the side of the river, he talked to some of the people who owned the slaves and found out more about them. Although there were one or two slave-owners who treated their slaves well, most of them treated their slaves cruelly. The slaves were given no wages, and were forced to work at picking cotton the whole day. They lived in miserable houses, and if they tried to run away they were cruelly beaten and sometimes even killed. The condition of these slaves made Abraham Lincoln very sad. Abraham Lincoln decided that in future he would do what he could to help the slaves in every way and to stop people from using them.

At the age of twenty-five Abraham Lincoln was elected to the legislature of Illinois State. This legislature was a meeting place where the laws of the state were decided; members of the legislature were elected or chosen by the people of the state. Thirteen years later Abraham Lincoln won a seat in the Congress, which was the highest assembly in the country. Abraham Lincoln was such a good speaker that he soon became very popular. He was also honest and sensible and so people listened to what he said. Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the

United States

in 1860 and soon after this the Civil War stared.

The chief reason for the war was the quarrel about slaves. People in the northern states were opposed to slavery; people in the southern states needed the slaves to work on their cotton plantations. This became the man reason for the quarrel between the north and the south. All the southern states decided to break away from the northern states and from their own country. The southern states said to the northern states,

‘You object to slavery; very well, you go your way, and we will go ours’.

Abraham Lincoln was very much against this, and said that all the states of the union should stay together. In one of his speeches he said,

‘A house divided against itself cannot stand’.

Collision between southern and northern armies

At first the southern armies under General Lee won many victories. They slowly defeated the northern forces and marched towards Washington, the capital, in the north. But in 1862 the northern forces, under General Grant, began to fight back much harder and they won a number of important victories. 800,000 people died in the Civil War.

In 1862, while the war was going on, Abraham Lincoln made the most important announcement. As President he declared that from that time onward all slaves would be free men. The next year the northern armies won a great victory at a place called Gettysburg. When the men who died at Gettysburg were being buried, Abraham Lincoln made a speech. The last sentence of his speech has become famous throughout the world, especially in countries where people think that freedom is important. He said,

‘We hereby resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation,

Under God, shall have new birth and freedom; and that the government of the

People, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth’.

At the end of the war Abraham Lincoln managed to carry out what he wanted to do most that is, to get rid of slavery and to keep the north and south together as one country called the United States. He was so popular that he was elected President for the second time.

Death of Abraham Lincoln

One night, when everybody in Washington was happy that the war was over and that peace had been declared, Abraham Lincoln took his wife to the theater. Suddenly, without any warning, a half-mad, John Wilkes Booth, appeared in the theater and shot Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln’s death in 1865 was mourned by all people of America. They had hoped that he would continue to lead them for many years, and they were shocked at his death.

Related post :

=> George Washington (The first president of USA)