The Emancipation Proclamation

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) was the sixteenth president of the United States and a pioneer in abolishing slavery. Lincoln was born into poverty in Hardin County, Kentucky. As a young man, he fought in the Black Hawk War, during which he made strong political connections. In 1834, Lincoln was elected to the Illinois state legislature as a member of the Whig Party. He then devoted much of his time to studying law, which eventually led to his single term in the United States House of Representatives. In 1856, Lincoln joined the Republican Party, using his position as a platform to speak against slavery in the Confederacy. Four years later, he was elected president. The Civil War erupted shortly after. In 1862, Lincoln delivered his famous Emancipation Proclamation, successfully freeing slaves in the Confederacy. Lincoln penned many more speeches and essays, most famously his Gettysburg Address. John Wilkes Booth, a Confederacy sympathizer, assassinated Lincoln at the Ford’s Theatre in 1865.