Remembering Abraham Lincoln
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, America's 16th president. All across the country celebrations have been held to honour America's great president.
Abraham Lincoln showed that any young person, whether he is rich or poor, can rise to the highest position.
Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in a log cabin in Kentucky. His parents were poor farmers and couldn't read or write. Young Abe only went to school for a year but he read all the time. He studied on his own and finally got a law degree.
In 1860 Lincoln was elected president.He promised to end slavery in the country. People in the southern states needed slaves to work on their plantations and they thought Abraham Lincoln was a danger to them. Within a few months southern states broke away from the union and formed the Confederate States of America. This led to a long and bloody war between the northern and the southern states, which ended in 1865.
Five days after the North had won the war Lincoln was shot and killed while he was watching a play in a Washington theatre.
Related Topics
- The American President
- African Americans
- Abraham Lincoln - America's 16th President
- The American Civil War
Words:
- anniversary = special day on which something happened in the past
- celebration = when you have a party or celebrate something
- honour = to show that you respect someone
- rise= come up to
- log cabin = a small house made of wood
- law degree = to finish the university and become a lawyer
- plantation= a big farm
- Confederate States of America = the southern states of America that broke away from the north because they were for slavery
- union = the United States