2/03/17 President Abraham Lincoln, The Man - Erin Bishop Cadigan, PhD

During his introduction of Erin Bishop Cadigan, Peter Goffin quoted, “We cannot escape history.”

(Photo: PP Peter Goffin, Erin Bishop Cadigan and President Laura Young.)

Erin Bishop Cadigan, PhD is a Museum Consultant with nearly 20 years of experience. From 2005-2009 she served as the Director of Education for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. Her current projects include coordinating the Town of Falmouth’s Tercentennial Commemoration taking place in 2018. She obtained her MA in history as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar at University College Dublin, Ireland, where she went on to receive her PhD.  Erin’s wealth of information gave us a fascinating look at President Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln was a self-made man and portrayed himself that way. He came from a place where only the three Rs were taught, being self-taught. He lost his mother at a young age. He was a common man, who pulled himself up to each level he achieved. He had extraordinary charisma and women loved him.
 
Lincoln came from subsistence farming where the self-reliant family unit was crucial to stability and survival. Six generations of Lincolns were in America before Abraham, all with very strong family ties. It was common to have a son work to pay off a father’s debts and the big blended families did that to pay off family debts.

Lincoln lived in a time of change, during a market revolution. With the advent of the factory and improved transportation, it made the country smaller. Families would think beyond survival and raise extra cash crops. At 19 years old, he got a job to take a boat to New Orleans, where he had his first view of slavery.

Lincoln migrated from Kentucky to Indiana, then later to Illinois....ending up in New Salem, a transitional place for him....from backwoods to urban, from old to new, and from agricultural to urban. He embraced the idea that any man could raise his status in life through his own work. 

Erin told us some interesting stories about how Abraham Lincoln dealt with his ne'er-do-well half-brother, John D. Johnson and "walked" us through a reading of the Gettysburg Address, asking us to read the parts with her that we held near and dear to our own beliefs today. It was a thought-provoking exercise.

For more on Abraham Lincoln, go to: www.biography.com/people/abraham-lincoln-9382540#synopsis