Something New

[Eva Elisabeth]

(07-21-2014 08:55 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(07-21-2014 07:42 PM)L Verge Wrote:  One question: The author states that Lincoln never wrote about his experiences in New Orleans after the flatboat trip down the Mississippi. Is this true?

This is what A. Lincoln wrote in his campaign autobiography in 1860 ( http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/linc...w=fulltext ):

"When he was nineteen, still residing in Indiana, he made his first trip upon a flat-boat to New-Orleans. He was a hired hand merely; and he and a son of the owner, without other assistance, made the trip. The nature of part of the cargo-load, as it was called---made it necessary for them to linger and trade along the Sugar coast---and one night they were attacked by seven negroes with intent to kill and rob them. They were hurt some in the melee, but succeeded in driving the negroes from the boat, and then ``cut cable'' ``weighed anchor'' and left."

About the second trip he almost only wrote: "During that winter, A. together with his step-mother's son, John D. Johnston, and John Hanks, yet residing in Macon county, hired themselves to one Denton Offutt, to take a flat boat from Beardstown Illinois to New-Orleans; and for that purpose, were to join him---Offut---at Springfield, Ills so soon as the snow should go off. When it did go off which was about the 1st. of March 1831--..."

John Hanks later recalled and told Herndon about an incident at a slave auction in New Orleans, but he (Hanks) did not go all the way with the others to New Orleans, so he couldn't have witnessed what he told.

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I just re-read a letter Lincoln wrote to Speed, which I had forgotten about when I posted this reply. Now that I came across the letter again I was reminded of this thread and would like to add this passage:

"You know I dislike slavery; and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it. So far there is no cause of difference. But you say that sooner than yield your legal right to the slave -- especially at the bidding of those who are not themselves interested, you would see the Union dissolved. I am not aware that any one is bidding you to yield that right; very certainly I am not. I leave that matter entirely to yourself. I also acknowledge your rights and my obligations, under the constitution, in regard to your slaves. I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down, and caught, and carried back to their stripes, and unrewarded toils; but I bite my lip and keep quiet. In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip, on a Steam Boat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio, there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continued torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border."

...and you can read the entire letter here:
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/linc.../speed.htm