The man who is often called America’s greatest president was born on February 12, 1809, in a crude log cabin in Kentucky. Eighteen feet long and sixteen feet wide, it had a dirt floor and no windows.
LOG CABIN
CABIN INTERIOR ONE ROOM PLUS A LOFT
His father, Thomas Lincoln, was hardworking and quiet, and famous for his honesty. He’d had little schooling—just enough to sign his name. Abraham’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, was intelligent and curious. She could read a little, but couldn’t write at all.
The Lincolns were poor. They moved from one small farm to another, trying to scratch out a living. When Abraham was seven, the family moved from Kentucky to Indiana.
One reason for the move was that Kentucky was a “slave state,” while Indiana was a “free state.” The Lincoln family hated slavery. Abraham later said that he was “naturally antislavery” as far back as he could remember. Eventually, the Lincolns ended up on a tiny farm in Illinois.
Even as small children, Abraham and his older sister, Sarah, worked hard. Abraham was tall and strong for his age. By the time he was eight, he could pick up an ax and split wood as well as any man. He also helped with the plowing and harvesting. But not hunting—when he was seven years old, he shot a wild turkey and discovered that he hated killing things.
When Abraham was nine, his mother died. It was a terrible loss for him and his sister. Thomas Lincoln couldn’t raise the children by himself. Their home was miles from most other people. So he went back to Kentucky and returned with a new wife.
Sarah Bush Johnston was a widow with three children. She brought her furniture with her—real beds, a table, and chairs that seemed like amazing luxuries to the Lincoln children. Much as he missed his own mother, Abraham quickly came to love Sarah. She encouraged all his interests. He called her “Mama” and was much closer to her than to his own father. Because of Sarah, Abraham remembered his childhood as a happy time.
With so much work to do, there wasn’t much time for schooling. Anyway, out in the wilderness there weren’t many schools. In Kentucky, Abraham had gone to an “A, B, C school,” where he had learned the alphabet, but not how to read or write. In Indiana, he sometimes went to a “blab school”—a place where all the students said their lessons out loud together. The schoolmaster listened and tried to pick out their mistakes through the noise.
Abraham finished with school for good at the age of fifteen. Altogether, he had gone for only about a year. But he had learned how to read. Now he could teach himself anything he wanted. He read every book he could find. He once walked twenty miles to borrow one.
It took him a long time to finish a book. Many people thought he seemed slow and plodding. But his stepmother understood why he took so long to learn. He wanted to be sure he really understood everything. Sometimes he’d learn part of a book by heart. Because paper was expensive and hard to get, he wrote out passages on a piece of wood. When the wood got so black he couldn’t see what he was writing, he would shave it off. Then he would start over again.
LINCOLN’S BOOKS
MOST OF THE BOOKS ABRAHAM LINCOLN READ AS A CHILD WERE ONES HIS STEPMOTHER, SARAH, BROUGHT WITH HER WHEN SHE MARRIED HIS FATHER. THERE WAS THE BIBLE, OF COURSE, And ALSO AESOP’S FABLES. HE LOVED THESE FABLES, WHICH TAUGHT HIM HOW TO USE FUNNY LITTLE STORIES TO MAKE IMPORTANT POINTS. HE MEMORIZED PASSAGES FROM SHAKESPEARE, And COULD STILL RECITE THEM WHEN HE WAS PRESIDENT. ANOTHER FAVORITE BOOK WAS A BIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. AS A CHILD, THOUGH, LINCOLN COULdN’T HAVE KNOWN THAT SOMEDAY HE WOULD BE CONSIDERED JUST AS GREAT A PRESIDENT!
People liked Abraham. He was so good at telling funny stories. He was also famous for practical jokes. He once managed to have two men who were getting married on the same day delivered to the wrong brides. People were still talking about this joke years later. |