PallasAbraham Lincoln's Indiana Boyhood 7th grade · age 12
By Simit Patel · published October 20, 2026
When young Abraham Lincoln walked miles to borrow books and read by firelight after a full day of axe work, what did he think reading could do for him?
The source
A Leaf from Abraham Lincoln's Earliest Handwritten Manuscript, His Homemade Student "Sum-Book"
About this document
As the reading described, Abraham Lincoln spent his boyhood at Little Pigeon Creek in Spencer County, Indiana. He had almost no formal schooling—less than a year in total—but he read every book he could get his hands on, borrowing them from neighbors miles away and reading by firelight after long days of physical labor. Not everyone approved. His father thought all that studying was foolish and even punished Abraham for reading when there was farm work to be done. But Abraham kept at it.
Around 1824, when he was about fifteen, Lincoln put together a homemade notebook out of loose sheets of blank paper, which was a rare and precious thing on the frontier. He used it as a "sum-book" to practice arithmetic. On one of the surviving pages, alongside neat math calculations, he scribbled a playful rhyme about himself: "Abraham Lincoln his hand and pen he will be good but god knows When." Below that, he copied several lines from a hymn by the British writer Isaac Watts about how quickly time passes. Only eleven pages from the sum-book are known to exist today.
"Lincoln was lazy - a very lazy man," a cousin, Dennis Hanks, remembered. "He was always reading - scribbling - writing - ciphering - writing poetry &c &c." To Lincoln's hardscrabble kith and kin, his will to educate himself, was foolishness - and important to rebuke.
"I tried to stop it," his father said, "but he got that fool idea into his head, and it can't be got out. Now I hain't got no eddication, but I get along far better than ef I had."
So his father did what he could: if he found his son reading, he'd beat him, and throw his books away. But if the boy was to the father, obdurate, he was to himself, hopeful. He persisted to learn...
Abraham Lincoln his hand and pen he will be good but god knows When
Blank paper was a rare and precious commodity in frontier Indiana, and that Lincoln choose to use it to understand mathematics, joke around, and express an elegiac sensibility, is telling. But that he wrote these things at all, is no small sign of heroism, considering.
Glossary
- ciphering v.
- doing arithmetic or math problems (excerpt 1)
- hardscrabble adj.
- barely scraping by; very poor (excerpt 1)
- kith and kin n.
- friends and family (excerpt 1)
- rebuke v.
- to scold or criticize sharply (excerpt 1)
- obdurate adj.
- stubborn, refusing to change (excerpt 3)
- commodity n.
- a useful resource or product (excerpt 5)
- elegiac adj.
- expressing sadness or deep feeling (excerpt 5)
Abraham Lincoln. “A Leaf from Abraham Lincoln's Earliest Handwritten Manuscript, His Homemade Student "Sum-Book".” Shapell Manuscript Foundation, c. 1824-1826, https://www.shapell.org/manuscript/abraham-lincoln-sum-book-manuscript/.
Your turn
Setting the scene
What has happened in our unit story by the time this document was created?
What does it say?
In paragraph one, what did Lincoln's cousin Dennis Hanks call him, and why?
In paragraph two, what does Lincoln's father call education, and what does he say about his own life without it?
In paragraph three, what did Lincoln's father do when he caught Lincoln reading, and how did Lincoln respond?
In paragraph four, what does young Lincoln say about himself in the rhyme he wrote?
In paragraph five, what does the author say was rare on the frontier, and what word does the author use to describe Lincoln's choice to use it for learning and writing?
What does it mean?
In paragraphs one and two, the author chooses to include the exact words Lincoln's cousin and father used — 'lazy,' 'fool idea,' and 'I hain't got no eddication.' Why does the author let these family members speak for themselves instead of just summarizing what they thought? Who is the author trying to convince of what about young Lincoln?
In paragraph five, the author calls Lincoln's decision to use his scarce paper for math, jokes, and poetry a sign of 'heroism.' Why does the author use such a strong word — 'heroism' — for something as simple as writing on paper? What is the author trying to get you to think about Lincoln's reading and learning?
What did the author assume?
Which assumption about what education can do for a person do you think Lincoln would agree with?
A. Education can open up a different and better future than the life you were born into.
B. Education is interesting but cannot really change the kind of life a person will end up living.
Which assumption about physical farmwork and reading do you think Lincoln would agree with?
A. Reading and thinking are just as valuable as physical labor — maybe even more so.
B. Physical farmwork is the most important kind of work, and reading should only happen after chores are finished.
Write your answer
Use Lincoln's homemade sum-book and the reading about his childhood to answer our question: When young Abraham Lincoln walked miles to borrow books and read by firelight after a full day of axe work, what did he think reading could do for him?
From Abraham Lincoln's Indiana Boyhood, a 7th grade history lesson on Pallas.