Online biography mary todd lincoln

First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865

For other women named Mary Lincoln, see Mary Lincoln.

Mary Ann Todd Lincoln (December 13, 1818 – July 16, 1882) served as the First Lady of the United States from 1861 until the assassination of her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, in 1865.

Mary Todd was born into a large and wealthy slave-owning family in Kentucky, although Mary never owned slaves and in her adulthood came to oppose slavery. Well educated, after finishing-school in her late teens, she moved to Springfield, the capital of Illinois.

She lived there with her married sister Elizabeth Todd Edwards, the wife of an Illinois congressman. Before she married Abraham Lincoln, Mary was courted by his long-time political opponent Stephen A. Douglas.

Mary Lincoln staunchly supported her husband's career and political ambitions and throughout his presidency she was active in keeping national morale high during the Civil War.

She acted