Abraham Lincoln's Flatboat — Mississippi Trips

Abraham Lincoln made two flatboat trips down the Mississippi to New Orleans — the first in 1828 at age 19, the second in 1831. Both trips brought him to the city’s slave markets, where he witnessed the auction of human beings for the first time. Lincoln never wrote a detailed account of what he saw, but his law partner William Herndon later claimed that Lincoln said: ‘If I ever get a chance to hit that thing, I’ll hit it hard.’ The New Orleans waterfront where Lincoln landed is now part of the Riverwalk — nothing marks the site.