Abraham Lincoln has been revered as a typical rags-to-riches story – the young boy of meager means who rose to become our greatest president. In Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, I wrote:
Things were going so well that both Sarah and Abraham were allowed, at least briefly, to attend local schools. When not in school or laboring on the farm, Abraham was a typical boy who got into scrapes; corporal punishment from both father and mother was not uncommon. On one occasion he fell into Knob Creek and his playmate Austin Gollaher saved him from drowning. Rather than run home to be coddled in response to the trauma of his near-death escape, Abraham dried his clothes in the sun for fear his mother would give him “a good thrashing.” Later he was kicked in the head by a horse and “apparently killed for a time.”
Of course he wasn’t that typical. Unlike many of his companions at an early age, Lincoln always sought intellectual stimulation. His father would berate him, even beat him, for putting off work in the fields to stop and read whatever book he was able to borrow. Lincoln the young boy learned as much as he could, which positioned Lincoln the young man to become involved in local politics and Lincoln the adult man to become the nation’s leader.
He never gave up that love of life, even as he dealt with the conflict of Civil War. Much to other political leaders chagrin, Lincoln would read from a humorist’s writings – often the adventures of Petroleum V. Nasby – before sitting down to serious business with his cabinet. The guy who would hold up children so they could leave muddy footprints on the ceiling in New Salem was the same guy who dealt with the horrors of slavery and war.
Lincoln started off life as a typical frontier boy, and ended his life as a wholly unique man who shepherded us through our darkest hours.
More in Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.
David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
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