Presidential Biographies | Lincoln Administrations - Career

Career

In addition to family tragedies, relocations, and remarriages, the hard physical work of living, farming, and surviving on the midwestern frontier influenced and molded the young Lincoln. Attending school only occasionally and with his father's assumption that the boy would become a farmer and therefore did not need much schooling, the young Lincoln spent a great deal of time out-of-doors at work in the fields, mills, and forests.

Lincoln was impatient under the discipline and oversight of his father, and while proficient enough at agricultural work, he apparently disliked the prospect of making farming a living. As he grew older, Lincoln sought opportunities to try new tasks and visit new areas. While he continued to live with his parents and help on the farm, in the late 1820s and early 1830s Lincoln also traveled down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, Louisiana, on two occasions to sell farm products. These...