Life of Abraham Lincoln - World of Biography

EARLY YEARS

Abraham Lincoln, to use his own words, was born "in the most humble walks of life" on February 12, 1809. His birthplace was a log cabin about three miles south of Hodgen’s Mill in Kentucky. His father, Thomas Lincoln, was large, powerful and compactly built. According to his distinguished son, he was "a wandering laboring–boy" and "grew up literally without education", and in mature life was barely able to write his name. During the years of Abraham’s early boyhood, the family lived in a picturesque spot on Knob Creek about eight miles from his birthplace – a spot of natural beauty and peace.

As a child, one of his favourite activity was to sit by the side of fire in the night and listen to the elders when they kept talking about the issues touching their life. A recurring issue in those long conversations of the grown-ups was slavery. Rich white men in those days could buy and keep black slaves, and the number of slaves a man had was the measure of his richies. Little Abe, as Abraham Lincoln was called by family and friends in his childhood would listen his father condemning the people who kept slaves. Thomos would support his views by saying that the whole idea of buying and keeping slaves was disgusting and humiliating, because all men are equal. "All men are equal", these words had found their place deep in the mind and heart of little Abe. The words stayed like a seed in his mind, and transformed him from Abe to impeccable Abraham Lincoln after a gestation period of few decades.

In December 1816, faced with a lawsuit challenging the title to his Kentucky Farm, Thomas Lincoln moved with his family to southwestern Indiana, a place over 100 miles far from Abe's birth place. There, as a squatter on public land, he hastily put up a "half–faced camp" – a crude structure of logs and boughs with one side open to the weather. The family spent whole of the winter in such rigorous conditions. Soon he built a permanent cabin and later bought the land on which it stood. Abraham helped to clear the fields and to take care of the crops but early acquired a dislike for hunting and fishing, because he loved those creatures. The very idea of killing the birds or animals, even for food never appealed him.

His mother Nancy Lincoln died in the autumn of 1818, just at an age of 34 years. His dear mother, who always kept telling him that she loved him much was being buried in the forest. Nothing was more traumatic for a nine-year-old child. Not more than a year had passed since he saw his mother dying, Abe himself had a close encounter with death in 1819. A horse kicked him on his head and injured him badly. Fortunately he survived the experience.

The same year, Thomas Lincoln married Sarah Johnston, the widow of Daniel Johnston. She had three children from her first marriage, two girls and a boy. She soon became an important factor in Abraham Lincoln’s rearing. Sarah ran the household with an even hand, treating both sets of children as if she had borne them all. She became especially fond of Abraham, and he of her.'The stepmother' is one of those words that usually triggers dreadful memories and negative emotions, but for Abraham, the word pulled all his lovely, cherishable memories. He afterward referred to her as his ‘angel mother.’

At the age of eleven, with the help of his father, Abraham got a job as sexton, responsible for sweeping the place out and furnishing it with candles.The next four years were not much event ful in his life. His father would encourage him to be a farmer, which he responded coldly. He went to school quite irregularly. His total schooling was not more than a year. But he had a remarkable apetite for reading books, his mind was having indirect education from the university of 'Life'.

Sarah doubtlessly encouraged Lincoln’s taste for reading. Both his parents were almost illiterate, and he received little formal education. His neighbors later recalled how he used to trudge for miles to borrow a book. Abraham used his leisure for self-improvement by the reading of a few good books. The Bible, Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim’s Progress, Aesop’s Fables, Grimshaw’s History of the United States, Weem’s Life of Washington and various other biographies and books of verse were the principal works known to have been used by Lincoln during this period. Young Lincoln did not read a large number of books but thoroughly absorbed the few that he did read. He somehow grew up without the frontier vices, avoiding liquor and profanities of any sort. He earned a few dollars by rowing passengers from the shore to passing steamers and in 1828; made the trip from Gentry’s Landing on the Ohio to New Orleans. Lincoln’s relations with his father seem to have been unhappy and he waited for the day when he could shift. Abraham Lincoln

When Abraham turned 21, the Lincolns were again on the move, this time to Illinois. Abraham himself drove the team of oxen. He had just come of age and was about to begin life on his own. He was rawboned and lanky but muscular and physically powerful. After his arrival in Illinois, Lincoln tried his hand at a variety of occupations since he had no desire to be a farmer. At first Abraham remained with the family, helping to build the new cabin, splitting fence rails, planting corn, and assisting in the rough tasks of the following winter. He then settled in New Salem, about 20 miles northwest of Springfield. Abraham spent his years from 1831-37 working in the store of Denton Offutt till it closed down and also managed a mill. He conducted a store with W.F. Berry, who died leaving a debt of $ 1100, which Lincoln finally paid. Abraham Lincoln worked at splitting rails and doing odd jobs to earn a living. He also acted as a village postmaster; traversed the country as deputy surveyor; and all the while read law, studied grammar and followed the trends of national politics.

With the coming of the Black Hawk War in 1832, Lincoln enlisted as a volunteer and was elected captain of his company. He used to joke later that he had a "Good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes". Meanwhile, he was also aspiring to be a legislator but was defeated in his first try and later repeatedly re-elected to the state assembly. At some point, he also considered blacksmithy as a trade but finally decided in favor of the law. Since he had already taught himself grammar and mathematics, he began to study law books in 1836. He passed the bar examination and began to practice law.