Abraham Lincoln
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
137 free Abraham Lincoln trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
85 free Abraham Lincoln trivia questions with answers. Did you know Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address was only 272 words long? You'll explore Lincoln's life, presidency, and legacy through 50 thought-provoking questions that challenge both casual history fans and serious scholars alike.
30 of 137 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was Abraham Lincoln born?
1809
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a one-room log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm, the second child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln.
Q 02Which national holiday did Lincoln proclaim in October 1863?
Thanksgiving
Lincoln's October 1863 proclamation made Thanksgiving a national holiday on the last Thursday of November; magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale had lobbied presidents for years for a single national day.
Q 03What was the name of the theater where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated?
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre is where Lincoln was shot in the presidential box on the night of April 14, 1865; soldiers carried him across the street, where he died the next morning.
Q 04Which political party did Abraham Lincoln belong to when elected president?
Republican
Lincoln was the first Republican president, elected in 1860. He had previously been a Whig but joined the newly formed Republican Party in the 1850s.
Q 05What document did Lincoln sign on January 1, 1863, declaring slaves in Confederate states to be free?
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, declared that all enslaved people in Confederate states were to be set free. It did not immediately free all slaves but transformed the war into a fight for human liberty.
Q 06What number president of the United States was Abraham Lincoln?
16th
Lincoln became the 16th president in March 1861 with seven Southern states already gone from the Union, and the war began the following month.
Q 07Lincoln had Mary Todd's wedding ring engraved 'Love is' what?
Eternal
Love is eternal was engraved in the gold band Lincoln ordered for their wedding on November 4, 1842, nearly two years after their first engagement had been broken off.
Q 08Before becoming president, what profession did Lincoln practice?
Lawyer
Lincoln was a self-taught lawyer who earned his license in 1836. He practiced law in Springfield, Illinois, and became one of the most respected attorneys in the state before entering politics full-time.
Q 09In which state was Abraham Lincoln born?
Kentucky
Kentucky was home until Lincoln was seven, when his father, who had lost his land there in disputes over land titles, moved the family across the Ohio River.
Q 10Which speech did Lincoln give at the dedication of a soldiers' cemetery in November 1863?
The Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address was billed only as "a few appropriate remarks" to follow the day's main two-hour oration, and Lincoln finished it in about two minutes.
Q 11Who assassinated Abraham Lincoln?
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer, fled on horseback after the shooting and was tracked down and killed in a Virginia barn twelve days later.
Q 12Which newspaper editor's 1862 'Prayer of Twenty Millions' prompted Lincoln's 'paramount object' reply?
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley printed 'The Prayer of Twenty Millions' in his New York Tribune in August 1862; Lincoln replied that his paramount object was to save the Union, not to save or destroy slavery.
Q 13What nickname was commonly used for Abraham Lincoln?
The Rail-Splitter
Q 21Lincoln warned that "a house divided against itself cannot stand" on accepting an 1858 nomination for which office?
U.S. Senator
U.S. Senator was the seat at stake when Lincoln addressed his party's state convention on June 16, 1858; the biblical line warned that the nation could not endure half slave and half free.
Q 22How many sons did Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln have?
Four
The Lincolns had four sons; only the eldest lived to adulthood, while the other three died at ages 3, 11 and 18.
Q 23What was the first state to secede from the Union after Lincoln's election in 1860?
South Carolina
South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860, just six weeks after Lincoln's election. Six more states followed before Lincoln even took office on March 4, 1861.
The Rail-Splitter caught on at the 1860 Illinois state convention, where supporters paraded in fence rails he was said to have split as a young man.
Q 14Which amendment, championed by Lincoln, formally abolished slavery throughout the United States?
13th
The 13th Amendment cleared Congress on January 31, 1865, and Lincoln signed the resolution the next day though no signature was needed; he was killed before its ratification that December.
Q 15Who served as Lincoln's first Vice President?
Hannibal Hamlin
Hannibal Hamlin of Maine served through the first term; for 1864 the party replaced him with a Southern War Democrat to widen the ticket's appeal.
Q 16What play was being performed the night Lincoln was shot?
Our American Cousin
Tom Taylor's comedy Our American Cousin was in its third act; the assassin timed his shot to the line 'you sockdologizing old man-trap', which always drew loud laughter.
Q 17Which Mississippi River stronghold fell to Union forces on July 4, 1863, cutting the Confederacy in two?
Vicksburg
Vicksburg surrendered after a 47-day siege, giving the Union control of the river; Lincoln rejoiced that "the Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea."
Q 18What did Lincoln's Homestead Act of 1862 provide?
160 acres of public land to settlers
160 acres of public land to settlers who paid a small filing fee and then lived on and improved the plot for five years; about 1.6 million homesteads were eventually granted.
Q 19As of 2025, Lincoln holds which presidential record?
Tallest
Tallest: Lincoln described himself as six feet four inches, "nearly", and a painter who measured him in the White House made it six feet three and three-quarters.
Q 20Which general did Lincoln appoint as commander of all Union armies in March 1864?
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant became the first full lieutenant general since George Washington and, rather than run the war from a Washington desk, set up his headquarters in the field with the Army of the Potomac.
Q 24On which U.S. currency does Abraham Lincoln's portrait appear?
The $5 bill
The $5 bill pairs Lincoln's portrait with the Lincoln Memorial on its back; his profile also went on the penny in 1909, to mark the hundredth anniversary of his birth.
Q 25Lincoln's 1849 patent covered a device for doing what?
Lifting riverboats over shoals
Lifting riverboats over shoals with inflatable chambers was Lincoln's answer to boats he had seen stuck in shallow water; it was never manufactured, yet it made him the only president to hold a patent.
Q 26What was Lincoln's position on slavery when he first ran for president in 1860?
Prevent its expansion into new territories
Prevent its expansion into new territories: the 1860 platform promised to leave slavery alone in the states where it existed, yet seven states still left the Union before his inauguration.
Q 27Where did Robert E. Lee surrender his army on April 9, 1865, days before Lincoln was shot?
Appomattox Court House, Virginia
Appomattox Court House, Virginia, saw Lee's surrender signal the end of the war, though other Confederate armies fought on for weeks; the terms let his men go home with their horses.
Q 28Who sculpted the seated Lincoln statue inside the Lincoln Memorial?
Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French designed the 19-foot marble statue of a seated Lincoln, carved by the Piccirilli brothers and unveiled at the Lincoln Memorial's dedication in 1922.
Q 29Which 1862 law signed by Lincoln gave states federal land to fund new colleges?
The Morrill Act
The Morrill Act, signed by Lincoln on July 2, 1862, gave each state public land to sell for college endowments; Cornell and many state universities were founded under it.
Q 30Which two jobs did Lincoln hold in the Illinois village where he lived in his twenties?
Store clerk and postmaster
In the village Lincoln worked as a store clerk and, from 1833, as postmaster; he also surveyed and co-owned a general store whose failure left debts he called his 'national debt'.