Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

• “If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some slaves and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”

Background

• Born on the frontier of Kentucky

• Only spent a year in school, self-taught

• Young Senator• Honest, humorous

Lincoln’s Goal

• Civil War was to restore the Union, not to end slavery

• Four slave states remained in the Union

• Two years into the war he issued the Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation

• January 1, 1863• Free slaves in all states• No slaves actually

gained independence• Changed the purpose

of the war

Reelection

• Despised by the South• Northerners were

unhappy about the way he handled the war

• North was obviously winning the war, Lincoln was reelected in 1864

Assassination

• Five days after the South surrendered, assassinated

• John Wilkes Booth shot him at a play

• Lincoln died the next morning

Lincoln & KennedyEerie Similarities?