Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln Before 1860: Crossing the Ohio River to Indiana, 1816; Excerpts From Newspapers and Other Sources Some of the most important events in the life of Thomas Lincoln, father of the President, occurred in consecutive decades beginning with his birth in Virginia in 1776. Ten years later Thomas saw his own father shot down by the Indians in Kentucky which robbed him not only of guidance but financial support as well. In 1796 we have the first record of Thomas as a laborer earning a daily wage, as on July 16 of that year at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, he was paid thirty-nine shil lings by Samuel Haycraft. Ten years later he married Nancy Hanks on June 6, 1806. The significance of Thomas Lincoln's removal from Kentucky which featured his 1816 decade experiences has not as yet been fully appreciated. Inasmuch as the migration took place sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas of that year this might be an appropriate time, on the 130 anniversary of the occasion, to further explore the far reaching importance of this move. The removal of the impressionable seven year old Abraham Lincoln from a slave state to a free state may have changed the whole course of American history. If Abraham had remained in Kentucky and had grown up with the institution lof Slavery it is not likely he would have had any opportunity for political advance ment in the party with which he became affiliated or the newly organized anti-slavery group which at a later date he helped to organize. What the change in atmosphere might have done for him had he remained in Kentucky is clearly set forth in his own words in a speech which he made at Peoria on October 16, 1864. He said in part: I think I have no prejudice against the Southern People. They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not exist among them they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among us we might not instantly give it up. This I believe of the great masses north and south. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.