Background
Abraham Lincoln came from a poor frontier family and attended school for about one year. His political career began in 1832 when he announced his candidacy for the Illinois state legislature in 1832. He lost in that bid for office, but he was elected to the state house two years later. He also began to study the law and became an attorney. In 1846, he won a term to Congress. His party, the Whigs, began to split over slavery, and he left politics for a time to focus on his law practice. His hatred of slavery and his opposition to the spread of it prompted his return to politics when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854. Lincoln was essentially without a party, and began to fuse his beliefs with other anti-Nebraska politicians, which formed the basis for the Republican Party. The focus of this web site is Lincoln's transformation from Whig to Republican and some of his writings as he made the switch.
The purpose of this web site is to provide resources for teachers and students centered around several key political documents that Lincoln wrote. Lincoln's writings and speeches are linked from the House Divided Project at Dickinson College, which is an incredible tool for anyone studying Lincoln and the Civil War. This site is designed to help students explore how Lincoln evolved from a frontier Whig lawyer to one of the founders of the Republican Party, while helping them understand the events that surrounded and shaped him. It is also designed to provide teachers with resources that include close readings of Lincoln documents, lesson plans, and links to other primary source documents.
Abraham Lincoln came from a poor frontier family and attended school for about one year. His political career began in 1832 when he announced his candidacy for the Illinois state legislature in 1832. He lost in that bid for office, but he was elected to the state house two years later. He also began to study the law and became an attorney. In 1846, he won a term to Congress. His party, the Whigs, began to split over slavery, and he left politics for a time to focus on his law practice. His hatred of slavery and his opposition to the spread of it prompted his return to politics when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854. Lincoln was essentially without a party, and began to fuse his beliefs with other anti-Nebraska politicians, which formed the basis for the Republican Party. The focus of this web site is Lincoln's transformation from Whig to Republican and some of his writings as he made the switch.
The purpose of this web site is to provide resources for teachers and students centered around several key political documents that Lincoln wrote. Lincoln's writings and speeches are linked from the House Divided Project at Dickinson College, which is an incredible tool for anyone studying Lincoln and the Civil War. This site is designed to help students explore how Lincoln evolved from a frontier Whig lawyer to one of the founders of the Republican Party, while helping them understand the events that surrounded and shaped him. It is also designed to provide teachers with resources that include close readings of Lincoln documents, lesson plans, and links to other primary source documents.
This web site was created by J.B. Duncan as a part of the Gilder Lehrman Online Course "Understanding Lincoln" which was conducted by Professor Matthew Pinsker of Dickinson College. J.B. teaches U.S. History at Morton Ranch High School in Katy, Texas.