Biography of Abraham Lincoln for Kids: Meet the American President for Kids - FreeSchool

You're watching Free School! Today we are going to learn about the American

president

, Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th

president

of the United States, was born on February 12, 1809 in Kentucky. His father was a farmer and his family was very poor and lived in a small one-room log cabin. When Lincoln was still very young, his family moved to Indiana and then back to Illinois. He only went to school for a year, but he loved books and learning, and taught himself as much as he could. When he was 22 years old, Abraham Lincoln left home to work in a general store.

It was there that he got his nickname "Honest Abe." Once, a customer accidentally overpaid by a few cents, and that night, when the store closed, Abraham Lincoln walked miles to get the money back. In 1832, Lincoln ran for election to become a member of the Illinois State Legislature, but lost. After that he served as a Captain in the Army, and then began working as a lawyer and got married. In 1846 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. In 1860 he ran for president. It was a difficult time in the United States. The North and South did not agree on many things and the situation was getting worse.

One thing they did not agree on was slavery. The Northern states did not want more slavery. The southern states wanted to keep their slaves. Abraham Lincoln didn't like slavery either. He was elected president because he had the support of the northern states. He had almost no support from the southern states. As soon as he became president, the southern states began to secede from the Union. That means they decided they no longer wanted to be part of the United States. President Lincoln was determined to keep the country together and in 1861 a war began. It was the Civil War, a terrible and bloody war that lasted four years.

On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, an order that freed all slaves in the southern states. A few years later, he helped pass the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which made slavery illegal throughout the United States. The Civil War finally ended on April 9, 1865. President Lincoln wanted to rebuild the country and help the South rebuild. Unfortunately, he did not live to see that happen. Less than a week after the end of the Civil War, Lincoln and his wife were watching a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. when a man named John Wilkes Booth shot him in the head.

Abraham Lincoln died the next morning, on April 15, 1865. He was the first American president to be assassinated. Abraham Lincoln once said, "I want those who knew me best to say of me that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow." He is widely considered one of the greatest presidents in American history. His leadership during the Civil War and his defense of human freedom make him an American hero. His face is on pennies and five-dollar bills, he was included on Mount Rushmore, and there is a monument in his honor in Washington, DC.

I hope you enjoyed learning about Abraham Lincoln. See you soon!