Abe Lincoln Stops By For A Talk

By Tanjua Damon

Head O’ Meadow and Sandy Hook Elementary Schools had a special guest this week. Abraham Lincoln dropped by to tell the students about his life and presidency.

With Lincoln’s birthday coming up on March 12, the presentation provided the students a history lesson about growing up in the 1800s and being a president who made difficult decisions that changed the nation. The students appreciated the true-to-life performance of Abe Lincoln by actor Greg Bradley. The PTAs at Head O’ Meadow and Sandy Hook sponsored the presentations through the Cultural Arts program.

Mr Bradley explained to the elementary school children that Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky in a log cabin. The Lincoln family moved to Indiana and was one of the first families to do so. Abe Lincoln told the students that he did not go to school very often because he had to help his family on the farm.

“I almost never got to go to school,” he said. “In the winter maybe for a week or two. I probably went to school for less than one year.”

President Lincoln read a lot of books to become educated, Mr Bradley told the students. But televisions and radios did not exist then and Mr Lincoln loved to read.

Mr Lincoln was very tall. He stood six feet four inches. Growing up he had many nicknames, including “Skinny,” “Bean Pole,” and “High,” Mr Bradley told the students.

Mr Bradley spoke to the students about how the first time Mr Lincoln had experienced slavery was when he built a riverboat to help take the corn crop down the river to New Orleans, Louisiana. Mr Lincoln saw a slave auction.

In 1834, Mr Lincoln was made a state representative of Illinois. He made $3 a day while the government was in session, Mr Bradley said.

He was married to Mary Todd and had four sons, Robert, Edward, William, and Thomas.

In 1860 Mr Lincoln was elected president, but only by the northern free states. In the south his name did not even appear on the ballot, Mr Bradley told the students. The south did not like Mr Lincoln because of his anti-slavery views.

“It was a terrible thing for me because people in the south hated me,” he said. “I didn’t get one vote in the southern states. I was elected by the north, the free states.”

South Carolina decided to secede from the union because of President Lincoln’s election. Other southern states followed. They created their own capital in Richmond, Virginia, had their own flag, and made their own money. This was against the law, Mr Bradley told the students. The states were committing treason. This began the Civil War.

In 1862 President Lincoln told the south the fighting had to stop or he would free the slaves, according to Mr Bradley. In January 1863 President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. After two more years of brutal civil war, the south surrendered in April 1865.

Abraham Lincoln was 56 years old when he died of a gunshot wound to the back of his head. John Wilkes Booth killed President Lincoln in May 1882.

Mr Bradley stepped out of the Abraham Lincoln character so students could ask questions about Abraham Lincoln. The presentation entitled “The Living Abe Lincoln” was made possible by Mobile Ed Productions.