Biography

Abraham Lincoln

From Humble Beginnings:

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was born on February 12, 1809. Many historians and politicians consider him to be the greatest president of all time in terms of leadership, political skill, and character. Lincoln’s biography has become legendary. He ascended from poverty to become a lawyer, leader, and statesman primarily through his own perseverance. During his administration, Lincoln guided the country through its most difficult test, the Civil War, and helped it emerge united, if not undamaged. Lincoln’s impact on American history from the mid-1800s to the current day cannot be overstated.

Abraham Lincoln was born on Sinking Springs Farm in LaRue County, Kentucky. Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Abraham’s parents, had moved into the one-room log home just two months before his birth. He was his parents’ second child. Sarah was their older daughter. Later, a younger son, Thomas, would arrive, but the kid would not survive infancy.

His father worked as a farmer and carpenter. Thomas owned or managed a number of farms in the area when Abe was born, but he lost much of the land owing to property deed problems. Two years after the boy’s birth, the family relocated to Indiana to start afresh.

Unlike Kentucky, Indiana inhabitants were not permitted to possess slaves. It was a “free” zone. Furthermore, Abe’s parents were members of a stringent Separate Baptists religion that forbade drinking, dancing, and slavery. Although the Lincolns chose Hurricane Township, Indiana as their new home because it had more reasonable land ownership statutes, Abe’s eventual view on slavery was undoubtedly affected by the fact that it was a free state.

Thomas Lincoln was a hard worker who provided for his family via farming, cabinet making, and other woodwork. As a land and livestock owner, he was also a community leader. Thomas was able to recoup his losses in Kentucky by purchasing 80 acres of land in Hurricane Township, where he established the Little Pigeon Creek hamlet.

Abraham lost his mother when he was nine years old due to milk sickness, which is caused by drinking milk infected with white snakeroot. Sarah, his 11-year-old sister, had to take over her mother’s job in the family and became Abe’s primary caregiver.

Thomas remarried a year later, in 1819. Sally Bush Johnson, a widow with three children, was his bride. Abe and his stepmother grew close over time, and he referred to her as Mother.

A Love of Learning:

Many people thought Abraham Lincoln was lazy because he preferred reading and writing to farm work. Nonetheless, he taught himself for the most part, with occasional assistance from itinerant teachers passing through town. Abe received only roughly 12 months of formal education as a child. The Bible, “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” “Aesop’s Fables,” and biographies of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were among his early reading materials.

Abe established a reputation for physical strength as a teenager by defeating the leader of the Clary’s Grove guys, a gang of local bullies. He worked odd jobs in addition to his farm tasks at home and provided any money to his father to help with household maintenance.

When Abraham was 21, his family relocated to Macon County, Illinois. He accompanied them on this journey, but when the family prepared to migrate to another region of Illinois the next year, Abe felt it was time for him to go it alone.

He spent the next six years in the town of New Salem. He worked as a boatman, surveyor, soldier, rail splitter, and mailman, among other things. He was the owner and operator of a general store. Lincoln stood for and was elected as a member of the Illinois General Assembly in 1834. Two years later, he received his law license.

Life and Politics:

Abe became a junior partner in the law practice of John Todd Stuart after moving to Springfield, Illinois, in 1937. He met Mary Todd, a visiting cousin from Springfield, through Stuart. She was the daughter of Robert Smith Todd, a Kentucky slave owner.

Three years later, Abe and Mary began dating, and Abe proposed to Mary in 1840. The wedding took place in Springfield in 1842 when Abe was 33 and Mary was just 23 years old.

The newlyweds initially stayed in a second-floor room above a local bar, the Globe Tavern. They welcomed their first child, Robert Todd Lincoln, while there. Abe and Mary purchased a home near his legal practise in 1844. That same year, Abe opened his own law firm and hired William Herndon as a junior partner.

Edward Baker Lincoln, the couple’s second son, was born in 1846. Soon after, Abe was elected to the United States Congress as an Illinois representative. In 1847, he and his family relocated to Washington, D.C. The following year, Mary and her sons left Washington for their home in Springfield. Her husband disagreed with her belief that their absence would allow Abe to devote his whole focus to his work. Lincoln sponsored legislation to abolish slavery in Washington, D.C. in 1849.

The Lincolns’ youngest son, Edward, died of tuberculosis in February of the following year, according to historians. The youngster was only four years old. Mary gave birth to another son, William Wallace Lincoln, in December. Two years later, the couple welcomed another boy into their family. They gave him the names Thomas and Tad.

Abe, whose constituents had repeatedly re-elected him to the House, ran for Senate in 1854, but dropped out in favour of the front-runner, Lyman Trumbull. Lincoln did win the Senate nomination in 1858, delivering the first of his most famous addresses at the Illinois Republican Convention, which included the famous statement about the house divided.

His opponent for the Senate seat was Stephen Douglas, and they would engage in the Lincoln-Douglas debates in communities around the state over the next three months. Although Douglas won the senate race, Lincoln received the Republican presidential nomination in 1860 at the Republican National Convention in Chicago.

In November 1860, voters chose Lincoln. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was chosen as his vice president.

A Nation Divided:

South Carolina was the first state to separate from the Union in late 1860. Three months later, a coalition of southern states formed The Confederate States of America, led by Jefferson Davis, thus dividing the country in half.

At the age of 52, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th President of the United States in March. Before Lincoln and his family could settle into the White House, Confederate forces assaulted Fort Sumter in North Carolina, and the Civil War began.

William, Abe’s 11-year-old son, died in February 1862. Typhoid fever was most likely the cause of death.

Lincoln issued the first draught of the Emancipation Proclamation, legislation that would free individuals who were enslaved, in September 1862. It would take effect on January 1, 1863. In 1865, Congress ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which was also supported by Lincoln, putting an end to legal slavery in the United States.

Meanwhile, the Civil War carried on for the following few years, until the spring of 1865. Lincoln gave numerous well-known battle addresses, notably the Gettysburg Address in November 1863.

In March 1865, President Lincoln was re-elected and delivered his second inauguration address. He chose Andrew Johnson as his vice president this time. General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate forces, declared defeat a month later, and the war was finished.

On April 14, 1865, Confederate spy John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Washington, D.C.’s Ford Theater. The president died the following morning.

The Legacy of Abraham Lincoln:

Abraham Lincoln’s personal life narrative is a tremendous inspiration to others throughout history as a self-educated man who rose from humble beginnings to the highest office in the country. President Lincoln stands as an icon of perseverance, intelligence, and compassion as a politician who guided the country through its most difficult periods since its founding. His legacy is still as powerful today as it was after his untimely death in the post-Civil War era.

Historians consider Lincoln’s biggest contributions as president to be preserving the Union throughout the Civil War, championing democracy, and abolition of slavery. Abraham Lincoln demonstrated strength and drive via his daring leadership during a time of extreme distress. The president expressed his loyalty to the Union and sorrow for the loss of life in his memorable addresses to the country, frequently delivered on the sites of brutal battles. Despite his personal losses, including the death of a son during his president, Lincoln managed to keep the welfare of the country at the forefront of his political acts.

Lincoln’s humanitarian devotion to emancipating American slaves gained him many enemies and almost definitely contributed to his death. However, it is this devotion, combined with his firm leadership in times of crisis and accomplishments in the face of national struggle, that has kept his reputation alive around the world and has made him the most admired US president in history.

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin’s famous work On The Origin Of Species:

Charles Darwin was a British biologist who was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England and died on April 19, 1882 in Downe, Kent. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and biology at Cambridge, the grandson of Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood. He was recommended as a naturalist for the HMS Beagle, which was on its way to South America and the South Seas on a long scientific survey mission (1831–36). His zoological and geological discoveries during the expedition resulted in numerous major publications and served as the foundation for his evolutionary theories. Observing competition between individuals of a single species, he recognised that within a local population, the individual bird with the sharper beak, for example, might have a better chance of survival and reproduction, and that if such traits were passed on to future generations, they would be dominant in future populations. Natural selection, he believed, was the mechanism by which beneficial variants were transmitted down to future generations while less advantageous features ultimately eliminated. He worked on his idea for over 20 years before publishing it in his renowned book On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection (1859). The book was instantly in high demand, and Darwin’s very contentious idea was soon accepted in most scientific circles; most criticism came from religious leaders. Though following advances in genetics and molecular biology altered Darwin’s beliefs, his work remains important to modern evolutionary theory. Other notable publications by him are Variation in Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868) and The Descent of Man.. (1871). He was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey. Also see Darwinism.

Charles Darwin is famous for:

The foundation of modern evolutionary theory is Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin’s fundamental essay On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, presented the notion. Although Victorian England (and the rest of the globe) were reluctant to accept natural selection as the driving force behind evolution, the notion of evolution itself acquired general acceptance by Darwin’s death.

The Evolution:

The three fundamental components of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution were that variation occurs randomly among members of a species, that an individual’s features could be inherited by its descendants, and that the battle for survival would allow only those with advantageous traits to survive. Despite the fact that many of his theories have been confirmed by current science, Darwin did not get everything right: remnants of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s outmoded theory of evolution lingered in Darwin’s own. He was also unable to determine how traits were inherited correctly, which was not addressed until the uncovering of Gregor Mendel’s work with peas.

Educational Background:

Charles Darwin was always drawn to science as a child. His father sent him to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine in 1825. There, he was exposed to many of the time’s opposing beliefs, notably those of Robert Edmond Grant, a former pupil of French evolutionist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. In 1828, he relocated to Christ’s College, Cambridge, where his instructors mostly supported the theory of providential design. A botany professor advised Darwin undertake a voyage on the HMS Beagle, which would supply him with most of the evidence he needed to support the idea of evolution by natural selection.

Family Life:

Charles Darwin was born in 1809 in England to a wealthy family. His father was a doctor, and his mother, who died when he was just eight years old, was the daughter of a wealthy manufacturer from the 18th century. Darwin was not the first member of his family to embrace naturalism: his father’s father, Erasmus Darwin, was a physician, inventor, and poet who formulated his own views on species development. Darwin later married Emma Wedgwood, his first cousin on his mother’s side. They had ten children together, three of whom died at an early age.

Social Impact:

Charles Darwin’s theories had a significant impact on scientific thought. However, his theories had an impact on politics, economics, and literature. More insidiously, Darwin’s concepts were used to support notions like social Darwinism and eugenics, which exploited biological determinism to advocate for the abolition of persons judged socially unsuitable. Although Darwin was an abolitionist, his work spawned some of the most racist and classist social schemes in the last 150 years..