Lincoln

Lincoln

Mehmet Bayram

September 11, 2006

APUSH 1

Mehmet Bayram

U.S. History AP 1

September 11, 2006

Reaction Paper

David Herbert Donald's Lincoln is a biography of our sixteenth President, Abraham Lincoln. At the age of twenty one, he was sure he did not want to be like his father Thomas Lincoln, an uneducated farmer, so he left his fathers house permanently. He had many jobs, learned many lessons, and made both friends and enemies, all which helped him to become one of the greatest presidents of the United States of America during the time the country had split, the Civil War. Thoroughly researched and excellently written, this biography comes alive and shows us what really happened during the early to mid-nineteenth century and it still puts us in the point of view of our former president, using the information and ideas available to him.

In Lincoln, I believe the thesis would be: Abraham Lincoln was a man who was controlled by circumstances rather than determining his own destiny. Lincoln grew up at a farm and if nature intended he would have died in a farm too, but during the times that Lincoln grew up, extraordinary things were happening to the nation in politics and the society. He always despised of farm work and loved to read. "Once he got the hang of it, he could never get enough. (p. 30)" The first books he read were brought from Kentucky when his father re-married to Sarah Bush Johnston. There weren't many books available to Lincoln so he "...read carefully rather than extensively. (p.30)" At a young age, Lincoln was exposed to anti-slavery sentiment His parents moved away from a church because of slavery, even thought Lincoln was never interested in religion. He said once said "When I do good, I feel good, and when I do bad, I feel bad, and that's my religion. (Quote DB)" In 1816 Lincoln's father went to Little Pigeon Creek in Perry County in Indiana to look for a good spot to construct a house. He constructed a "half-faced camp, a rough shelter, with no floor, about fourteen feet square, enclosed on three sides, but open on the fourth. (p. 25)" Years later Lincoln said that they left Kentucky "partly on account of slavery, but chiefly on account of the difficulty in land tiles in Kentucky. (p. 23)" Rapidly growing railroads and canals helped populate the rest of the continent. Lincoln was also affected by family issues. When Lincoln was only nine his mother, Nancy Lincoln, died because of milk sickness. For one year the Lincolns went out without a mother and it was the time "...when he needed more support and compassion than his stolid father could give him (p. 33)" This, as a result, made his relationship with his father deteriorate. This worsening relationship made him itch to leave his father's house and took many jobs that distanced him from home. In 1828, Lincoln accompanied James Gentry's son, Allen on a flatboat to send a load of meat, corn and flour down the rivers for sale in New Orleans. He still was not of age to leave his family. He was requesting improvements in the Sangamon River for transportation. It was a small step, but it further distanced him from his father. When Denton Offutt, a businessman, asked him and John Hanks to ride down to New Orleans to take a flatboat with a cargo of supplies, he accepted and left his father's house. In Sangamo Town he helped build a boat for Denton Offutt. When his father died in 1851, he did not attend his funeral; he just sent a letter of sympathy. "He was not heartless, but Thomas Lincoln represented a world that his son had long left behind him. (p. 153)" Lincoln wrote a letter to the editor of the Frankfort Commonwealth in 1864 saying "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. (p. 514)"

Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Illinois. During the 19th century, slavery and racism were great problems in the United States. Slaves were treated very badly; they had very long work hours and weren't given the nutrition they needed. Lincoln once saw slaves being sold in New Orleans which probably added to his hatred of slavery. As Lincoln grew up, so did the amount of slaves in the United States. In 1810 there were well over one million slaves, and by 1860, the amount more than tripled. Most of these slaves were African American and some owner of the slaves treated the African American slaves worse than the other slaves that were of a different race. Many slaves started to run away from their owners using the Underground Railroad or on their own to safer places like Canada or the Union. The word about it spread and the slaves increased hope that they can escape so more and more tried. Even if Blacks were free, they were not treated like other human beings. If something happened, it would most likely be blamed on a Black. This racism would not be fixed until after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. Before Lincoln took office, seven states declared their secession. The Civil War started in the United States in 1961 because of the disagreement of slavery. The Northern section of the United States, The Union States, did not favor slavery, but the southern section, The Confederates States of America, did. The President of the Confederacy was Jefferson Davis. One of the Generals during the war was Ulysses S. Grant, and he would soon be the President of the United States. The war didn't focus on slavery until critics and the people started complaining about it. Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation on September 1862 which stated that all slaves in the rebellious states were free. It didn't free a slave immediately, but it admitted Blacks into the Union Army,