Read & Think · Against the Odds

The Boy Who Read by Firelight

How a barefoot cabin kid with almost no schooling became the president who helped end slavery.

Name

Date

Abraham Lincoln in an 1863 photograph by Alexander Gardner — the self-taught boy from a log cabin who became the sixteenth U.S. president. Portrait: Alexander Gardner, Library of Congress, public domain.

Picture a boy stretched out on the dirt floor of a one-room log cabin, a borrowed book open before him, reading by firelight because there was no lamp. That boy was Abraham Lincoln, who had almost no schooling at all. Yet he grew up to become the president who helped end slavery in America.

Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in the woods of Kentucky. His family was poor, and there were no schools nearby. All his classroom time, added together, came to less than a single year. When he was only nine, his mother died — a loss that would have crushed many children. Abraham kept reaching for books.

Because there was no teacher, Lincoln taught himself. He walked miles to borrow books and read them until the ideas stuck. Tall and strong, he was handy with an axe, splitting fence rails. He clerked in a country store, steered a flatboat down the river, and served as postmaster in New Salem, Illinois.

Then Lincoln did something remarkable: he decided to become a lawyer with no college and no mentor. He borrowed thick, heavy law books and studied them alone. It worked. In 1836 he passed the exam and began arguing cases in court, winning people over with plain words and honest reasoning.

His words carried him into politics. In 1858 he stood up in a famous set of debates and argued that the nation could not keep growing while enslaving human beings. Two years later, in 1860, voters elected him the sixteenth president. Almost at once the country split apart, and the terrible Civil War began.

As president, Lincoln made history. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring enslaved people in the rebelling states to be free. That same year he gave a short, stirring speech at Gettysburg. In 1865 his push helped pass the 13th Amendment, ending slavery across the country.

Lincoln never got to enjoy the peace he had won. On April 14, 1865, he was shot at Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth and died the next morning. But the boy who once read by firelight had already changed his nation forever.

Source: Facts drawn from the public historical record; photo credited on the page.

The Boy Who Read by FirelightComprehension

Check that you read it

Fill each blank with the right word from the box.

Word bank: firelight · Kentucky · lawyer · Gettysburg · slavery

As a boy, Lincoln read borrowed books by firelight because his cabin had no lamp.
Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin in the woods of Kentucky.
With no college and no mentor, Lincoln taught himself to become a lawyer.
In 1863, Lincoln gave a short, stirring speech at Gettysburg.
The 13th Amendment ended slavery across the country.

Choose the best answer

Which sentence best captures the main idea of Lincoln's story?
- A. A poor, self-taught boy rose to become the president who helped end slavery.
- B. Lincoln enjoyed a long, peaceful life after the Civil War ended.
- C. Lincoln attended the finest schools in all of Kentucky.
- D. Lincoln's greatest talent was splitting fence rails with an axe.
In what year was Lincoln elected president?
- A. 1809
- B. 1836
- C. 1860
- D. 1865
Lincoln taught himself law from borrowed books with no teacher. What does this best suggest about him?
- A. He was determined and driven to learn on his own.
- B. He disliked reading and avoided books.
- C. He had plenty of money to pay for school.
- D. He gave up easily whenever things got hard.

The Boy Who Read by FirelightVocabulary

Word cross

Use what you read to fill the puzzle. Every clue is answered somewhere in the article.

1B

O

K

2S

L

3C

A

B

I

N

4K

5L

V

6P

R

E

S

I

D

E

N

T

N

R

T

C

Y

7A

U

O

X

C

8L

A

9W

Y

E

R

K

N

A

Y

R

Across

Borrowed reading he taught himself from, with no teacher
The one-room log ___ where he grew up reading by firelight
The nation's top leader, which he was elected to in 1860
Job he learned to do with no college and no mentor

Down

What the 13th Amendment ended across the country
The state, in the woods, where he was born in 1809
This self-taught president's last name
Tool he was handy with, splitting fence rails
The terrible Civil ___ that split the country after 1860

The Boy Who Read by FirelightCritical Thinking

Now think

There isn't one right answer here. Explain your thinking — the reasons matter more than the answer.

1 · Some people call Lincoln a 'self-made' man. Using details from the article, do you think that name fits? Point to evidence for your answer.

For the teacherA strong answer takes a clear position and backs it with specifics from the text — the borrowed books, teaching himself to read and to practice law, his year or less of schooling — rather than just stating an opinion.

2 · The article says Lincoln 'taught himself.' But who and what else might have helped him succeed? Was learning alone really the only reason he rose so far?

For the teacherA strong answer pushes past a single-cause story, noticing that the people who lent him books, his own persistence, and the chances he found all played a part — not just one thing.

3 · Lincoln learned something hard with almost no help. Think of something you would like to learn on your own. What is your plan for when you get stuck and there is no teacher nearby?

For the teacherA strong answer names a real goal and a concrete strategy — finding resources, practicing, asking others, not quitting — and connects it back to how Lincoln kept going despite his obstacles.