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98 free Lincoln trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
50 free Lincoln trivia questions with answers. Lincoln trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Abraham Lincoln trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01In what state was Abraham Lincoln born?
Kentucky
Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring farm, near Hodgenville in Hardin County, Kentucky, on February 12, 1809.
Q 02Whom did Abraham Lincoln marry on November 4, 1842?
Mary Todd
Mary Todd: Lincoln met her in Springfield in 1839, broke off their engagement in early 1841, and the reconciled couple married on November 4, 1842.
Q 03Which profession did Abraham Lincoln teach himself from borrowed books?
Lawyer
Lawyer: Lincoln never studied in an attorney's office; he read law on his own from borrowed books and was licensed to practice in Illinois in September 1836.
Q 04Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th president of the United States during which major conflict?
American Civil War
Abraham Lincoln led the United States through the American Civil War, serving as president from 1861 until his assassination in 1865.
Q 05Who assassinated Abraham Lincoln?
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor, shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, five days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox; he was killed at a Virginia farm on April 26.
Q 06What political party did Abraham Lincoln belong to when he was elected president in 1860?
Republican Party
Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election, becoming the first president from the newly formed Republican Party. He had previously been a Whig.
Q 07Which document, issued by Lincoln, declared enslaved people in Confederate states to be free?
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved people in the states then in rebellion to be free; it left slavery untouched in the loyal border states, which is why a constitutional amendment was later needed.
Q 08What famous speech by Lincoln begins with 'Four score and seven years ago...'?
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863 at the dedication of a soldiers' cemetery, took Lincoln only about two minutes; 'four score and seven' counts back 87 years to 1776.
Q 09What was Abraham Lincoln's height?
6 feet 4 inches
Lincoln stood 6 feet 4 inches, a full 12 inches taller than his 1860 opponent Stephen A. Douglas, who was 5 feet 4 inches.
Q 10In what year did Abraham Lincoln first win election to the Illinois State Legislature?
1834
Lincoln lost his first run for the Illinois General Assembly in 1832, then won a seat in 1834 and went on to serve four consecutive terms in the state House.
Q 11What was the name of Abraham Lincoln's stepmother, who encouraged his education?
Sarah Bush Johnston
Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow with three children of her own, married Thomas Lincoln in December 1819 and brought books such as Aesop's Fables and The Pilgrim's Progress into the household.
Q 12Lincoln briefly served as a captain in the Illinois Militia during which conflict?
Black Hawk War
Black Hawk War: in 1832 Lincoln interrupted his first campaign for the Illinois House to serve about three months as an elected militia captain, his only military service; he saw no combat.
Q 13Which legal principle against unlawful detention did Lincoln suspend in April 1861?
Habeas Corpus
Q 21Lincoln and the 'Long Nine' legislators moved the Illinois capital to Springfield from which town?
Vandalia
Vandalia: in 1837 Lincoln and Sangamon County's nine tall legislators, the 'Long Nine', won passage of the act moving the Illinois capital from Vandalia to Springfield, effective 1839.
Q 22What well-known nickname was given to Abraham Lincoln, reflecting his reputation for integrity?
Honest Abe
Honest Abe: the nickname dates to his New Salem storekeeping days; 'Old Hickory' was Andrew Jackson, 'The Little Magician' Martin Van Buren and 'Rough Rider' Theodore Roosevelt.
Q 23Which 1861 crisis over two Confederate envoys seized from a British ship did Lincoln defuse?
Trent Affair
Habeas corpus: Lincoln suspended the writ along the Philadelphia-Washington rail line on April 27, 1861; Chief Justice Taney ruled in Ex parte Merryman that only Congress could do so, but Lincoln ignored the opinion.
Q 14In which city was Lincoln nominated for president on the third ballot in May 1860?
Chicago
Chicago: the 1860 Republican convention met in the Wigwam, a hall built for the occasion, where Lincoln overtook front-runner William H. Seward of New York on the third ballot.
Q 15What was the total amount of formal schooling Abraham Lincoln received during his childhood?
Approximately one year
Approximately one year: Lincoln wrote in 1860 that all his schooling, taken 'by littles' in Kentucky and Indiana, 'did not amount to one year'; he was largely self-taught.
Q 16What job did Lincoln hold in New Salem, Illinois, in 1831 and 1832?
Store clerk
Store clerk: Lincoln clerked in Denton Offutt's general store in New Salem from 1831; he later co-owned a store there with William Berry, which took out a tavern licence in 1833.
Q 17Abraham Lincoln's famous debates in 1858 were against which politician?
Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen A. Douglas: the 1858 Senate-race debates had an atmosphere 'akin to a prizefight'; the Democrats kept the legislature and re-elected Douglas, but Lincoln came out of them a national figure.
Q 18Which Lincoln cabinet member, initially a rival for the Republican nomination, became his Secretary of State?
William H. Seward
Doris Kearns Goodwin later called the cabinet a 'team of rivals'; Seward went on to negotiate the purchase of Alaska in 1867.
Q 19After a funeral train that crossed seven states, Lincoln was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in which city?
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield, Illinois: Lincoln lies in the Lincoln Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery with Mary and three of their four sons; the eldest, Robert, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Q 20To which state did the Lincoln family move from Kentucky in 1816, when Abraham was seven?
Indiana
Indiana: in December 1816 Thomas Lincoln moved the family to Little Pigeon Creek in what became Spencer County, partly over Kentucky land-title disputes; Abraham lived there until the move to Illinois in 1830.
Trent Affair: in November 1861 the USS San Jacinto seized Confederate envoys Mason and Slidell from the British mail steamer Trent; after British protests Lincoln released them, saying 'one war at a time'.
Q 24In which state did Lincoln give his two-minute speech dedicating the Soldiers' National Cemetery in 1863?
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania: the cemetery at Gettysburg sits on the field where the war's costliest battle was fought on July 1-3, 1863, four and a half months before Lincoln spoke on November 19.
Q 25On the advice of 11-year-old Grace Bedell in 1860, Lincoln became the first US president to do what?
Grow a beard
Grow a beard: Bedell wrote from Westfield, New York, that whiskers would win votes because 'all the ladies like whiskers'; the newly bearded Lincoln met her there in February 1861 en route to Washington.
Q 26Lincoln's portrait appears on the penny and on which US banknote?
$5 bill
$5 bill: Lincoln's portrait has appeared on the five-dollar Federal Reserve Note since the 1914 series and on the one-cent coin since 1909, the centenary of his birth.
Q 27At which theater was Abraham Lincoln assassinated?
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre, on Tenth Street in Washington: Lincoln was shot in the presidential box there at about 10:15 pm on April 14, 1865, and died the next morning without regaining consciousness.
Q 28How many of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln's four sons lived past age twenty?
One
One: Robert, born 1843, later Secretary of War and minister to Britain, outlived his father by sixty-one years; Eddie died at 3, Willie at 11 and Tad at 18.
Q 29Who gave the two-hour oration that preceded Lincoln's brief remarks at the 1863 Soldiers' National Cemetery dedication?
Edward Everett
Everett wrote to Lincoln the next day: 'I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.'
Q 30Which 1844 law partner described Lincoln's face as 'long, narrow, sallow, and cadaverous'?
William H. Herndon
Herndon was the third of Lincoln's three partners after Stuart and Logan, and after Lincoln's death lectured that his old partner had been a religious 'unbeliever'.