Michelle Obama
Meet the First Lady
Chapter One
Hometown: Chicago
"Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight
Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders."
In 1916 the great American poet Carl Sandburg called
Chicago the "city of the Big Shoulders" in his famous
poem. He meant that the city was a busy, hardworking
place just like the busy, hardworking people who lived
there. Starting in the early 1800s, settlers of all
kinds pushed into the vast area of America known as the
West in their relentless search for more land and
opportunity for themselves and their families. Chicago's
geographic location put it at the heart of this western
migration.
Chicago, with its deepwater seaport on Lake Michigan,
was in the perfect position to serve as the center for
growing trade with the rest of the emerging nation.
Farmers who harvested their grain and stockmen who
raised livestock all looked to Chicago to process and
ship their produce, by rail and by ship, to hungry
cities ... read full excerpt from Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady ebook
