What Is Abraham Lincoln's Childhood

Abraham Lincoln

Childhood:

It was a cold morning on February 12, 1809, deep in the woods of Kentucky, on a cabin’s bearskin covered bed when Abraham Lincoln arrived in the world (Stone 8). He was named after his grandfather who was killed by Indians in 1786 (Stone 8). The twenty-foot long, eighteen-foot wide, one room log cabin where Abraham was born had a stone fireplace and a dirt floor (Phillips 3). Abraham Lincoln went from being an uneducated, dirt-poor farm boy to being one of the greatest leaders this country has ever had.

At age six, Abraham was sent to his first “ABC” school, which were also known as “blab” schools (Holzer 19). To help with the little education he received, Nancy would sit down with Abraham and his older sister, Sarah, and recite Bible verses she had memorized (Stone 10). According to Harold Holzer, “Abraham picked up most of his education by reading.” Jeffery Morris states that Abraham was a great reader and he would travel for miles to borrow books. Abraham would attend school as much as he could; however, he ended up having less than one year of school, but he knew how to read, write, and was an excellent speller (Stone

She came from a wealthy family who owned slaves (Stone 34). Although they owned slaves, they treated them very well and a slave woman named Mammy Sally helped raise Mary (Ashby 10). Ruth Ashby states that “Mary’s mother died from childbirth fever when Mary was only six; it was the first of many devastating losses for her.” Mary’s father, Robert, promptly remarried to a woman named Betsy Humphreys (Ashby 11). According to Ashby, Robert Todd believed in providing good education for both his sons and daughters. In 1827, Mary was eight years old and she started attending Ward’s Female Academy (Ashby 11). There she learned reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, the natural sciences, French, and religion (Ashby