Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth President*of the United States. He was born in a very poor family in Kentucky. His parentswere Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. The family moved to Indiana when Abe was just 8 years old. A year later his mother died.
Lincoln had less than a year of schooling. At that time books and paper were very rare and expensive. So, he worked his arithmetic problems on a wooden board and cleaned the board with a knife so he could use it again. The family owned a Btfble and he spent many hours reading it. He would copy parts of it in order to memorize it. Sometimes he would walk for miles to borrow a book. One of his favorite books was "The Life of George Washington".
By the time he was 17, he knew he wanted to be a lawyer. But he had to do various jobs to support the poor family. In between, he was elected to the Illinois legislature. Still, he hadn't given up his desire to become a lawyer. 1836 he passed the t^st and became a lawyer. He was elected the president in 1861. The Civil War began immediately after that. Lincoln had two main goals; he wanted to free the slaves and he wanted the United States to r,emam one nation. He practically succeeded in it. Lincoln died after being shot at a theater performance in Washington, D.C.
