Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States of America, serving until his assassination on April 15, 1865.
When Lincoln took office "All of the servants were free men and women, but many had been enslaved or descended from enslaved families" (White House History). Lincoln was known to treat the African-American staff at the White House "like people" and would "request their service 'rather than demand it of them'" (White House History).
Born on February 12, 1809 in Kentucky, Lincoln was part of the National Union Party. Lincoln fought to keep the United States together during the American Civil War and was killed only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender.
Resources
- Abraham Lincoln: HistoryAbraham Lincoln, a self-taught lawyer, legislator and vocal opponent of slavery, was elected 16th president of the United States in November 1860, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War.
- Abraham Lincoln: White HouseAbraham Lincoln became the United States’ 16th President in 1861, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy in 1863.
- Abraham Lincoln and The American Civil War: Research GuideMcKee Library's research guide on the American Civil War and Reconstruction. This tab includes information regarding President Lincoln in relation to the Civil War.
- Lincoln’s AssassinationJohn Wilkes Booth, a popular 26-year-old actor who was also a Confederate sympathizer and white supremacist, had been plotting for months to abduct Lincoln and give the Confederacy another chance. But three days earlier, hearing the president talk of his plans to bring the nation together—in particular, Lincoln’s plans to grant some African-American men the right to vote—Booth’s plans turned murderous.
- Presidential LibraryExperience history like never before. Step inside key moments in Lincoln's life, from triumph to tragedy. Explore immersive displays and shows that drive home the human costs of slavery and war. Connect with Lincoln and his family through artifacts that can't be found anywhere else in the world. You'll feel like you're walking in Lincoln's shoes.
- Slavery's Mark on Lincoln's White Housen a bright March 4, 1861, took office as President of the United States “entirely ignorant not only of the duties, but of the manner of doing the business,” and so he soon confessed.
Streaming Media
- Abraham Lincoln: His Life and His LegacyApril 14th, 1865, just 5 days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Courthouse, ending the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth and would die the next day. This one violent act shocked a nation that for the previous 4 years had struggled through the deadliest conflict in its history. Abraham Lincoln, the man, had died. But, today, every human being who values their freedom, who respects and honors their inalienable rights, understands that the legacy of Lincoln lives on. Thus begins the incomparable story of America's 16th president, forever to be known as "The Great Emancipator." In this biographical documentary we explore the life story of this historical icon, born in a one-room log cabin in Kentucky, largely self-educated, who became an able and respected lawyer in Illinois; involved himself in politics, which led to the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates; then, in 1860, to his election as president, where his leadership as Commander-in-Chief held the Union together during the nation's bloodiest conflict. We visualize his strength of character in issuing The Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the end of slavery in America, during the height of the Civil War; we call to mind the events prior to and after his assassination; we reflect on his famous House Divided speech, as well as The Gettysburg Address; and in the context of Civil Rights, Women's Right to Vote, and the U.S. Constitution, we pay tribute to Lincoln's greatest legacy: freedom.
- Living with Lincoln: A Family Preserving Abraham Lincoln's LegacyThis feature documentary chronicles how five generations of one American family have shared the “glorious burden” of collecting, preserving and documenting a treasure trove of photographs, rare books and artifacts relating to Abraham Lincoln. In the years following the Civil War, Peter Kunhardt’s ancestors – in particular, his greatgrandfather, Frederick Hill Meserve – collected photographs that might have been lost forever, including now-iconic portraits used on the penny, the 5 dollar bill, and even the image of Lincoln used to create his likeness on Mount Rushmore.
- Lincoln@GettysburgIn 1863, Abraham Lincoln proved himself a master of a new frontier--not on the battlefields of the Civil War, but in his "high-tech" command center, the War Department Telegraph Office. The telegraph was the "Internet" of the nineteenth century, and it gave Lincoln powers of command, communications, and control never before exercised by a commander-in-chief. He used this new technology to connect the country to him--receiving nearly live dispatches via telegraph from his generals in the field and sending out his plans for the nation faster and with more clarity than ever before.
Perspectives
Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America (Simon & Schuster Lincoln Library)
"The power of words has rarely been given a more compelling demonstration than in the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln was asked to memorialize the gruesome battle. Instead he gave the whole nation "a new birth of freedom"--by tracing its first birth to the Declaration of Independence (which called all men equal) rather than to the Constitution (which tolerated slavery). In the space of a mere 272 words, Lincoln brought to bear the rhetoric of the Greek Revival, the categories of Transcendentalism, and the imagery of the "rural cemetery" movement. His entire life and previous training, his deep political experience, went into this, his revolutionary masterpiece." "As Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel has been restored to its bold colors and forgotten details, Garry Wills restores the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln at Gettysburg combines the same extraordinary quality of observation that defines Wills's previous best-selling portraits of modern presidents, such as Reagan's America and Nixon Agonistes, with the iconoclastic scholarship of his studies of our founding documents, such as Inventing America. By examining both the Address and Lincoln in their historical moment and cultural frame, Wills breathes new life into words we thought we knew and reveals much about a President so mythologized but often misunderstood. Wills shows how Lincoln came to change the world, to effect an intellectual revolution, how his words had to and did complete the work of the guns." "The Civil War is, to most Americans, what Lincoln wanted it to mean. Now Garry Wills explains how Lincoln wove a spell that has not, yet, been broken."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Reference, Archives, & Primary Sources
- Abraham Lincoln: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on Abraham Lincoln. This page includes links to reference works, journal articles, and a mind map.
- Abraham Lincoln: National ArchivesNational Archives from the 16th President of the U.S., 1861-1865.
- Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of CongressThe papers of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), lawyer, representative from Illinois, and sixteenth president of the United States, contain approximately 40,550 documents dating from 1774 to 1948, although most of the collection spans from the 1850s through Lincoln’s presidency (1861-1865). Roughly half of the collection, more than 20,000 documents, comprising 62,000 images, as well as transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents, is online. Included on this website in their entirety are Series 1-3 of the Lincoln Papers and the original materials in Series 4. Excluded from this online presentation is a sizeable portion of Series 4, which consists of printed material and reproductions of government and military documents made from originals in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration.
- Thomas Memorial Collection: McKee LibraryThe Thomas Memorial Collection contains materials related to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.