Flat Boat to New Orleans - 1828 br> When Lincoln lived in Indiana, almost the only way the farmers of the region could market their produce was to load it on flatboats and float it to the large cities on the high waters of the spring. In 1828, when he was only nineteen years old, he made his first trip of this kind. With another young man, he took a flatboat all the way to New Orleans. It was high adventure, for he saw the great world for the first time. And at New Orleans he had his first sight of a slave market in which human beings were bought and sold. That too he never forgot. From Painting by Louis Bonhajo << | >> ALL | TEXT