Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809, in the city of Hardim in Kentucky, USA.
In his youth, Abraham Lincoln held various jobs; he was a woodcutter, blacksmith, boatman, clerk, and Postmaster of the Village of Salem in Illinois. As a Captain, he volunteered in the fight against the Indians in the southern part of the state.
In 1834, he was elected as a Deputy in the Illinois Assembly and in 1846, as a Federal Deputy. As a representative of Illinois, he proposed gradual emancipation for slaves, which displeased both abolitionists and defenders of slavery. He opposed the invasion of lands in Mexico, but in the end, new lands were annexed to the United States. Lincoln campaigned for these new lands to be free from slavery.
In 1854, he participated in the founding of the Republican Party.
Great social transformations were occurring in the country. The political rivalry between the Democratic Party, representing the southern aristocrats, and the Republican Party of the northern industrial bourgeoisie generated several conflicts.
In 1858, as a candidate for the Senate from the new Republican Party, he lost the election but became the leader of the Republicans. In 1860, he ran for the presidency and was elected the 16th president of the United States.
Lincoln had to face the separatism of seven slave states in the south at the beginning of his administration, which formed the Confederate States of America. The president was firm and prudent: he did not recognize the secession, ratified national sovereignty over the rebellious states, and invited them to reconciliation, assuring them that the initiative for war would never come from him. Abraham Lincoln found the government without resources, without an army, and with public opinion favoring him only on a small scale. With iron will, he began a struggle that was initially adverse to him. He started the war with an army of seven thousand soldiers. In just one year, he doubled 
the army, organized the Navy, and obtained resources. The Confederates had consolidated their position, with the adhesion of four more states to the seven that had risen. On July 3, 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg took place, won by the northern forces.
Lincoln, who had decreed the emancipation of slaves and taken other liberal measures, pronounced, months later, upon inaugurating the national cemetery of Gettysburg, the famous speech in which he defined the democratic meaning of government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
The war continued for another two years, favoring the Union. Lincoln was re-elected president in 1864. On April 9, 1865, the Confederates surrendered at Appomattox.
Although he was considered conservative or a moderate reformist at the beginning, his last propositions were advanced. He was preparing a program for the education of freed slaves and suggested that the right to vote be granted to a portion of former slaves.
On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was attending a performance at Ford’s Theatre in Washington when he was shot in the neck by a pistol fired by actor John Wilkes Booth, who opposed the abolition of slavery. He died the next day.
Source: www.ebiografia.com, by Dilva Frazão