Lincoln Abraham - Meet Abraham Lincoln

Young Abe Lincoln had
never been to a big city before.

There were houses made of brick and stone. At first he thought New Orleans was a wonderful place. But then he saw a market where slaves were being sold. Abe did not like what he saw.

Text copyright 1965 by Random House, Inc.
Text copyright renewed 1994 by Eve Cary and Sylvia C. Hartman.
Illustrations copyright 1989 by Stephen Marchesi.

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in slightly different form by Random House, Inc., in 1965. This revised edition originally published by Random House, Inc., in 1989.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cary, Barbara.
Meet Abraham Lincoln / written by Barbara Cary ; illustrated by Stephen Marchesi.
p. cm. (Landmark books)
SUMMARY : Highlights the life of the man who was president during the Civil War.
eISBN: 978-0-307-78694-4
1. Lincoln, Abraham, 18091865Juvenile literature.
2. PresidentsUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature.
[1. Lincoln, Abraham, 18091865. 2. Presidents.] I. Marchesi, Stephen, ill.
II. Title. III. Series. E457.905.C27 1989 973.70924d C1 9 [B] [92] 88-19066

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Abraham Lincoln has been dead for more than 100 years. Yet each year, on February 12, Americans remember his birthday. He was one of the great presidents of the United States. Americans still remember what he said. They still read what he wrote. They remember the things he did as president. They say that, if he had not lived, the United States might be two countries today instead of one.

Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809. In 1809 the United States was still a young country. Its first president, George Washington, had been dead for only ten years. In 1809 there were only 17 states.

Eight of the states were in the southern part of the country. It was warm in the South. Cotton would grow there. Some farmers had big cotton fields.

They bought black men and women to work in their fields. They made the blacks their slaves. A slave had to do anything his owner told him to do.

Nine of the states were in the North. It was cold in the North. It was too cold to grow cotton. So people in the North did not own slaves. They did not need them. And they did not want them. They made laws against owning slaves.

In 1809 most of the land owned by the United States was still wild. But people were moving to this wild land. They were building new homes. And they were starting new states.

When Lincoln was elected president, there were 33 states. In 18 of them there were laws against slavery. In 15 states people could own slaves.

Abraham Lincoln was born in one of the slave states. It was the state of Kentucky.

The United States in 1860, when Lincoln was elected president.

Abraham Lincolns father was named Thomas. His mothers name was Nancy. When Abraham was little, they called him Abe.

Thomas Lincoln was a carpenter. He built log cabins for people.

The Lincolns lived in a one-room log cabin. There was a road near their cabin. It was one of the few roads in Kentucky. Sometimes Abe and his sister, Sarah, played by that road. Sometimes Abe just stood and watched people go by.

He saw families leaving Kentucky to start new states. He saw other families coming to live in Kentucky. Some of the white families had slaves with them. The families rode. The slaves walked.

Once Abe saw a soldier on the road. Abe had been fishing that day. He had caught a little fish. His mother had told him to be good to soldiers. He gave the soldier the fish.

Abe used the road to go to school. His school was in a log cabin. It was called a blab school because the children studied out loud. The noise they made sounded like blab-blab-blab.

Abe could not go to school very often. But somehow he learned to read and write. His mother and father could not read and write. Not many country people could in those days.

Abe did not have paper to write on. He did not even have a pencil. He held a stick over a fire until the end was black. Then he wrote with it on a wooden board.

The only book he had was a Bible. Some of the words were hard. But he figured them out. He read the Bible over and over. Finally he knew most of the stories by heart.

When Abe was seven, the Lincolns left Kentucky. One reason they left was that another man said he owned their land. Thomas thought he owned the land. He had bought it. But the other man said he had bought it first.

Thomas did not have much money. He could not pay a lawyer to find out who was right.

Another reason the Lincolns moved was that Kentucky was a slave state. Thomas and Nancy did not like living in a state where people could own slaves.

Thomas went to another state, called Indiana. In Indiana slavery was against the law. Indiana was a new state. Not many people lived there. In Indiana, Thomas could buy land from the government and be sure he owned it. And he did not have to pay for it all at once.

Thomas bought some land. It was at a place called Pigeon Creek. Then he went back to Kentucky to get his family.

It was winter when the Lincolns got to Pigeon Creek. While Thomas built a cabin, they lived in a shed made of branches. The shed was very small. And it was very cold. There was no room in it for a fire. Nancy and Sarah had to cook over an open fire outside.

Abe was a small boy. But he had to work like a man. He helped his father chop down trees to build their cabin. He helped him dig out tree stumps to clear a place to plant a garden in the spring. Abe once said that was the hardest winter he ever spent. Those were pretty pinching times, he said.

After the first winter, things were better for the Lincolns. They had their cabin. Thomas and Abe had planted a garden. They bought some cows and pigs.

More people were moving to Pigeon Creek. An aunt and uncle of Nancys came from Kentucky. They were Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow. The Lincolns were not as lonely as they had been.