Lincoln and his family moved to Illinois, where Lincoln set out on his own at age 22. Abraham was skilled at swinging an axe and made his living by chopping fire wood. Abraham got a job working as a shopkeeper, which is where he was able to practice his people skills that would help him later in life. Abraham was made captain during the Black Hawk war, where he made several political connections. In 1834 Abraham Lincoln was elected into the Whig party, which is where he began to understand that slavery was wrong and must be stopped. Feeling so strongly against slavery, Abraham decided to become a lawyer, and he did, he became a great one. In 1840 Lincoln became engaged to Mary Todd, and they married in 1842. Together they had four children, and of those four only one lived to adulthood.
In 1860 Lincoln began to run for president, which he won, because of his thoughts on slavery. March of 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as our 16th President of the United States. Lincoln was President during the Civil War, the war that divided America with the North and the South. This war started because of several different reasons. The North and the South did not agree on slavery, in fact they did not agree on much. The North wanted to separate from the South, because of social differences, and because they were fighting over federal rights as well. This war was a hard war for a president to be in charge of, but Lincoln did a great job, and he was a great leader. The war soon ended along with Slavery, due to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. This was an order that President Lincoln passed to congress that said that slaves were to forever be free. Putting an end to slavery was Abraham Lincoln's personal greatest accomplishment.
On April 14, 1865 President Abraham Lincoln went to see a play at Fords Theatre in Washington, D.C. where he was shot in the back of the head by a famous actor, and confederate supporter, John Wilkes Booth. A few hours later Abraham Lincoln was pronounced dead, which was a huge loss for the American people.