Born to illiterate parents in the untamed frontiers of America and raised with virtually no formal education, Abraham Lincoln often questioned his future. But he took comfort in knowing that he at least had the freedom to choose his own path in life. Freedom, he believed, was a precious thing, and he was certain that no man had a right to enslave another. Unfortunately, not everyone in America shared that belief. In the mid-19th century, America was a nation with more than four million slaves; it was a nation that had lost its moral compass; a nation desperate for a leader to step forward. That leader was Abraham Lincoln. Thrust into the national spotlight when his conscience would not let him turn away from injustice, Abraham Lincoln took control of a shattered nation at the cusp of a civil war. And he helped ensure that the idea of freedom for all did not perish from the earth.