Abraham Lincoln

Many people have lots of different opinions about the greatest American hero depending on what they think is important to America. Abraham Lincoln is someone who changed millions of lives and impacted the lifestyle of everyone. It is funny how a simple farm boy would end up freeing the slaves.

Abraham Lincoln was born on Feb. 12, 1809 in Hodgenville, Kentucky. The first couple of years of his life were filled with work. His mother died when he was nine years old. His father married another woman, named Sarah Bush Johnson, who encouraged Lincoln to get an education.  After 18 months he had a formal education. It went by so fast because he had a passion for reading and his step mother helped him a lot. When he got his education he found work splitting rails. He learned social skills from the people who would work with him. That was a key thing because if he had not had those skills, then he would not have not been able to successfully campaign for presidency. It was also a good quality because when the Black Hawk War started, the people elected Lincoln to be the captain. People trusted him to lead them to victory but he did not believe in the violent approach to winning. Consequently the people elected another captain and he forced Abe to be a spy.

The fact that so many innocent people who were forced fight died did not make Lincoln happy.  After the war he decided to become an attorney. He was  very good at this. He could solve any case and make the court believe that his point of view was right. Although he was good at his job, he would go with his own personal viewpoint. If he did not believe his client was innocent then he would drop the case, no matter how much they paid him. When Abe Lincoln got a glimpse of slavery he decided to be president to change the laws. When he started running, he found out that he was running against someone who had the exact opposite viewpoint. So they started debating. These debates lasted for months. They came to be known as the "Lincoln-Douglas debates" because of the fact that it was only Lincoln against Stephen Douglas. Both of the Candidates' campaigns revolved around slavery. When voting time came, Stephen Douglas won the support of many people. But he did not get enough votes to best Lincoln. When Lincoln announced that slavery was coming to an end, 11 states seceded from the Union because they were against Lincoln. This started the Civil War. After four long years of fighting, the Union won the war and slavery was banished, affecting the lives of millions of slaves and the plantation owner's lifestyle. On  the day of April 14, 1865, an actor against Lincoln ambushed him and shot him in the head ending his life.

                Abe Lincoln is an American hero because he demonstrated courage throughout his whole life. He was also very determined to achieve a certain goal which took years to do. Most people would probably give up, but Abe stuck with it and he achieved his goal changing the lives of millions of slaves. That is why Abraham Lincoln is an American hero.