Comparison of the lives and leadership abilities of the North’s Abraham Lincoln and the South’s Jefferson Davis makes an interesting study in contrasts. They were both born in log cabins in Kentucky, within 1 year and 100 miles of one another.  Thomas Lincoln, the father of Abraham, was a hard-scrabble farmer that placed minimal value on education. Samuel Davis, father of Jefferson, was a successful tavern keeper that wanted his son to receive a good education and to live the life of a gentleman.  Thomas Lincoln hated slavery, whereas Samuel Davis saw slavery as a means for future prosperity.

When Abraham was a boy, the Lincolns moved north from Kentucky to Indiana, and continued the lives of impoverished, small farmers.  Thomas Lincoln frequently hired his son out as a laborer to local farmers, keeping the wages Abraham earned.  Thomas placed little value in education, and Abraham would receive less than a year of formal schooling by the age of 18.  He learned what he could by borrowing books and studying at home. 

When Jefferson was a young boy, Samuel Davis sold his tavern in Lexington, Kentucky in order to move to Mississippi to buy a plantation and slaves.  Jefferson’s father sent his son to a preparatory school and then to Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.  Through the influence of his wealthy older brother, Jefferson Davis later obtained an education at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

When Lincoln reached the age of 21, he left his hard life as a farmer behind and moved to the village of New Salem, Illinois.  There he began to work at various jobs such as a store clerk, postmaster, and surveyor.  While in New Salem he served briefly as a captain of Militia in the Black Hawk Indian War. He taught himself law, was elected to the state legislature, and was admitted to the Illinois bar.  Lincoln won four terms in the Illinois State Legislature, and later went on to a single term in the United States House of Representatives in Washington.

After graduating from West Point, Davis spent several years in the army and then quit to marry the daughter of the future American president Zachary Taylor. Davis received a wedding gift of an 800 acre farm and slaves from his older brother, and was later elected to the US Congress.  He served as an officer in the Mexican War, and was appointed to fill a vacant Senate seat by Mississippi’s governor.  His service in the Senate was interrupted in 1853 when President Franklin Pierce asked Davis to be Secretary of War in his administration, but four years later Davis returned to the Senate.  During these years as a Democratic Senator from Mississippi, he earned a reputation as an effective orator for the cause of the South and as a protector of the institution of slavery.

Lincoln had left Congress to pursue a successful law career in Illinois, but the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 inspired him to run against Stephen A. Douglas for the US Senate in 1858.  Although he lost the election, Lincoln became nationally known as a leader of the new Republican Party and a powerful speaker against the expansion of slavery.

In 1861, Lincoln and Davis would find themselves opposing one another as leaders of two separate regions of the country, engaged in the bitter American Civil War.  How could two lives that began so similarly end up so different? Was it simply a matter of one moving south, and the other north?  Was it a matter of education?  Was it the influence of their fathers?  How did Lincoln and Davis compare as leaders? Lincoln had almost no military experience, but Davis had a great deal of military experience. Did this provide him an advantage during America’s most costly war? Each of these questions are worthy of research.  A worthwhile starting point is Great American History's Outline of the Civil War .