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.
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.
Living with Lincoln
This 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.
Source: Kanopy
Perspectives
Lincoln
A revealing drama that focuses on the 16th president's tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country, and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to succeed, his choices during this critical moment will change the fate of generations to come.
Lincoln
1988 Newbery Medal Winner Abraham Lincoln stood out in a crowd as much for his wit and rollicking humor as for his height. This Newbery Medal-winning biography of our Civil War president is warm, appealing, and illustrated with dozens of carefully chosen photographs and prints. Russell Freedman begins with a lively account of Abraham Lincoln's boyhood, his career as a country lawyer, and his courtship and marriage to Mary Todd. Then the author focuses on the presidential years (1861 to 1865), skillfullly explaining the many complex issues Lincoln grappled with as he led a deeply divided nation through the Civil War. The book's final chapter is a moving account of that tragic evening in Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865. Concludes with a sampling of Lincoln writings and a detailed list of Lincoln historical sites. This title has been selected as a Common Core Text Exemplar (Grades 2-3, Read Aloud Informational Text).
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
On March 4, 1865, at the United States Capitol, a crowd of fifty thousand listened as President Lincoln delivered his classic second inaugural address, urging charity and forgiveness to a nation in the final throes of war. Just two months later, a train, nine cars long and draped in black bunting, pulled slowly out of a station in Washington, D.C. Dignitaries and government officials crowded the first eight cars. In the ninth rode the body of Abraham Lincoln. As the funeral train made its way across nine states and through hundreds of cities and towns, the largest manhunt in history was closing in on Lincoln's assassin, the famous actor John Wilkes Booth. This American experience film recounts a great American drama: two tumultuous months when the joy of peace was shattered by the heartache of Lincoln's death. At the heart of the story are two figures who define the extremes of character: Lincoln, who had the strength to transform suffering into infinite compassion, and Booth, who allowed hatred to curdle into destruction.
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
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
"Prizewinning Lincoln scholar Allen C. Guelzo presents, for the first time, a full scale study of Lincoln's greatest state paper. Using unpublished letters and documents, little-known accounts from Civil War-era newspapers, and Congressional memoirs and correspondence, Guelzo tells the story of the complicated web of statesmen, judges, slaves, and soldiers who accompanied, and obstructed, Abraham Lincoln on the path to the Proclamation."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Abraham Lincoln
A champion of the American Union in its darkest hour, Abraham Lincoln's unbreakable faith in the United States and his role in ending slavery earn him a place on Mount Rushmore.
Source: Kanopy