Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and one of the great American leaders.
His presidency was dominated by the American Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809 near Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was brought up in Kentucky,
Indiana and Illinois. His parents were poor pioneers and Lincoln was largely self-educated. In 1836, he qualified
as a lawyer and went to work in a law practice in Springfield, Illinois. He sat in the state legislature from 1834
to 1842 and in 1846 was elected to Congress, representing the Whig Party for a term. In 1856, he joined the new
Republican Party and in 1860 he was asked to run as their presidential candidate.
In the presidential campaign, Lincoln made his opposition to slavery very clear. His victory provoked a crisis,
with many southerners fearing that he would attempt to abolish slavery in the South. Seven southern states
left the Union to form the Confederate States of America, also known as the Confederacy. Four more joined
later. Lincoln vowed to preserve the Union even if it meant war. Fighting broke out in April 1861. Lincoln always
defined the Civil War as a struggle to save the Union, but in January 1863 he nonetheless issued the
Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in areas still under Confederate control. This was an
important symbolic gesture that identified the Union's struggle as a war to end slavery.
On 19 November 1863, Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address at the dedication of a cemetery at the
site of the Battle of Gettysburg, a decisive Union victory that had taken place earlier in the year.
On 9 April 1865, the Confederate general Robert E Lee surrendered, effectively ending the war. It had lasted for
more than four years and 600,000 Americans had died. Less than a week later, Lincoln was shot while attending
a performance at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC and died the next morning, 15 April 1865. His assassin, John
Wilkes Booth, was a strong supporter of the Confederacy.