Mary Todd Lincoln Research Paper

Who was Mary Todd Lincoln? She was the wife of the 16th President, Abe Lincoln. Mary’s family was very wealthy. Mary is known for redecorating the White House and being the first Lady during the Civil War.

Mary Todd Lincoln was born into a wealthy family in Lexington, Kentucky. She was born December 13, 1818, being the third child of Robert and Eliza Todd (Hull pg. 11). Mary’s family had 3 female slaves, five children all together, and Mary’s mother died giving birth to her fifth child (Hull pg.12). Mary’s dad got remarried and had 9 kids with Elizabeth “Betsy” Humphreys. Mary looked up to her Grandma Parker as a role model (Hull pg.14). Mary’s stepmother didn’t like the original Todd kids, she called them “limbs of Satan.” Mary’s dad enrolled …show more content…
In 1839 she went to visit her sisters again and stayed in Springfield, where she met Abe (Hull pg. 24). Mary heard of Abe from her cousin on her first trip to Springfield in 1837. Mary and Abe started dating within the first year of Mary being back in Illinois. There were obvious differences and few similarities between Abe and Mary (Hull pg.27). They were already attracted to each other, but the election in 1840 brought Abe and Mary closer together (Hull pg. 28). Abe was supposed to be Mary’s date to a Christmas party, but he was late and when he got there he saw Mary flirting with one of his best friends (Hull pg. 29). They were very upset without each other so a year later their friend brought them back together at her house (Hull pg. 30). No one liked how James Shields said that the state of Illinois would only accept gold and silver coins for taxes, so they had a Rebecca letter, and Abe wrote one (Hull pg. 31). James found out one was from Abe and got angry, so he challenged him to a duel (Hull pg. 33). Abe and Mary got married at the Edwardses’ Parlor on November 4, 1842 (Hull pg. 35). Their minister was Reverend Charles Dresser. On August 1, 1843, Mary gave birth to their first child, whom she named after her father. Her son’s name was Robert Todd Lincoln (Hull pg. 37). In 1846, Abe was elected into the US Congress, and their second child, Eddy, was born. Mary moved back to Kentucky with her two children and wrote …show more content…
When Abe became President in November of 1840, Mary’s life changed drastically. Abe received death threats before he became President and when he became President (Hull pg. 51). Sometimes, visitors would steal things that Mary paid for to redecorate the White House (Hull pg. 54). The Civil War started on April 12, 1861, while Mary was the First Lady and Abe was the President. Lincoln told the Union Army to put down the South and rumors were going around that the Confederates were going to raid Washington D.C (Hull pg. 55). The assassination of Abe Lincoln happened on April 14, 1865 at Ford’s Theater. They were spending a day together since the war was almost over and they thought they had nothing to worry about. They were sitting in the same place they always sat when John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abe (Hull pg. 67). Many believed Mary died that day too, because for the rest of her life she dressed in black and everything she had was black (Hull pg. 68). Overall, Mary just kept dying even more on the inside every