By CLEOPATRA MURPHY
Freeport News Intern
Camp-goers at the YMCA Summer Camp received an education in U.S. history yesterday as the U.S Embassy kicked off events for its first 4th of July celebration in Grand Bahama.
Husband and wife team Larry and Mary Elliot descended upon the camp to treat the group to a reenactment of the lives of the 16th president of the United Stated of America Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln.
As the character acting duo entered the room they were greeted by with cheers and applause of the eager group.
As they took to the stage to recite the life of the Lincolns and the events leading up to the abolition of slavery in the U.S., the Elliots entreated the youth to be attentive of what they had to share.
Performing in the first person as Abraham Lincoln, Larry Elliot told the group that he was born in a one-room, dirt-floor, log cabin in Kentucky on February 12, 1809.
Remaining in character to keep his young audience captivated, Elliot said Lincoln's mother could not write but she would read the Bible to him religiously. His father, he said, instilled in him at an early age that slavery was wrong.
"My father used to teach me that if slavery isn't wrong, then nothing is wrong," he said.
He noted that because Lincoln's father was so opposed to slavery, he sold his 200-acre farm for $200 and relocated the family to Indiana — a state free of slavery.
He noted that because he was so poor, Lincoln could only attend school one or two days a month, but it did not deter him from his goals.
At the age of 19 in Louisiana, Lincoln witnessed a slave auction and it was at this point that he made the decision that if he ever had the opportunity to make a change he would do it.
"This made my stomach sick and I said if I ever had a chance to hit that thing hard, I'm going to hit it hard," Elliot said as Lincoln.
When he moved to Illinois, Lincoln became a lawyer.
"In those days you had to take an oral exam in front of a judge and if you passed you could be a lawyer."
Lincoln was on his way to becoming the 16th U.S. president.
Taking the stage as Mary Todd Lincoln, Mary Elliot addressed the children gathered.
She shared that Mary Todd Lincoln's upbringing was a complete contrast to that of her husband.
Mary Todd Lincoln was born on December 13, 1818 in Lexington Kentucky.
"We lived in a large two storey brick home. We actually had carpets on my floor," she said. "My father was a senator and a bank president so we were a family of means."
She met the future president at a party and when they danced she knew he was different, Elliot said as Mary Todd Lincoln.
The Lincolns got married and had four children: Robert, Edward, who died at three-years-old, William and Thomas.
During the course of the marriage Abraham Lincoln became the president of the United States of America.
The passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act on May 30, 1854, inspired Lincoln to run for president. He said slavery existed in the North but not in the West. The passing of the Act would make it possible for different states to choose if they wanted slavery.
"I said, 'A house divided against itself cannot stand. This government cannot endure half slave and half free.' "
Lincoln ran for president and won.
"When I became president we only had 34 states," Larry Elliot said, remaining in character.
He shared with the children, however, that the country had been experiencing turmoil.
He noted that for some 20 years — from the 1830s to the 1850s — the country had been fighting over slavery.
The civil war was a tough time for the country. Elliot noted that South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas broke away from the union wanting to form a new country — the Confederacy.
"Sixty-thousand lives would be lost for this evil sin of slavery."
As Lincoln, Elliot noted that July 1 was significant because it was the 146 anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg.
"Fifty-one thousand soldiers lost their lives over the seven letter word freedom," he said
A few months earlier, Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation that would free slaves. On April 9, 1865, the war ended and the slaves were free and the union stayed intact.
"The black soldiers that were in my union army were the difference that was so meant to be by our founding fathers," Elliot said as Lincoln.
Now addressing the young children as himself, Elliot told the youth the importance of President Lincoln and the impact his presidency had on U.S. history.
"Abraham Lincoln saved the country from ruin. He took the northern states and the southern states together," he said.
He noted that sometimes it is easy to give up in times of struggle, but because of Lincoln's determination the union was preserved.
Still, Elliot shared with the children that President Lincoln met an untimely death when he was assassinated on April 14, 1865 at Ford's Theatre. He later died from his injuries a day later at the age of 56.
