The Two Mothers Who Molded Lincoln
"As Mother’s Day approaches, explore Abraham Lincoln's relationships with the mother and stepmother who both nurtured him as a child and set him on the pathway to the White House".
"Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who gave birth to the Great Emancipator on February 12, 1809, had instilled the virtues of honesty and compassion in her son and sowed the seeds of his intellectual curiosity. Although lacking a formal education of her own, Nancy Lincoln impressed the importance of learning and reading on her young boy as they moved about the Kentucky and Indiana frontier. When his mother suddenly died in 1818 after drinking milk tainted with poisonous white snakeroot, 9-year-old Abraham was devastated".
"As testimony to the nurturing of Nancy Lincoln, whom her son began to call his “angel mother,” Sarah Lincoln found her new stepson to be a model child. “Abe was the best boy I ever saw,” she said years later after his death. “I can say what scarcely one woman—a mother—can say in a thousand and it is this—Abe never gave me a cross word or look and never refused in fact, or even in appearance, to do anything I requested.” Sarah also vouched for Honest Abe’s long-standing reputation for integrity. “He never told me a lie in his life—never evaded, never equivocated, never dodged.”
"As Mother’s Day approaches, explore Abraham Lincoln's relationships with the mother and stepmother who both nurtured him as a child and set him on the pathway to the White House".
"Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who gave birth to the Great Emancipator on February 12, 1809, had instilled the virtues of honesty and compassion in her son and sowed the seeds of his intellectual curiosity. Although lacking a formal education of her own, Nancy Lincoln impressed the importance of learning and reading on her young boy as they moved about the Kentucky and Indiana frontier. When his mother suddenly died in 1818 after drinking milk tainted with poisonous white snakeroot, 9-year-old Abraham was devastated".
"As testimony to the nurturing of Nancy Lincoln, whom her son began to call his “angel mother,” Sarah Lincoln found her new stepson to be a model child. “Abe was the best boy I ever saw,” she said years later after his death. “I can say what scarcely one woman—a mother—can say in a thousand and it is this—Abe never gave me a cross word or look and never refused in fact, or even in appearance, to do anything I requested.” Sarah also vouched for Honest Abe’s long-standing reputation for integrity. “He never told me a lie in his life—never evaded, never equivocated, never dodged.”
