CHAPTER III
LINCOLN AS A LABORER
As time wore on, and Abraham got from newspapers and elsewhere an idea firmly lodged in his mind, that there was a world outside of and beyond Gentryville, he longed to carry his wits and energy to a larger market. Accordingly, he applied to Mr. William Wood, who was quite willing to aid him, for a recommendation as a hand of some sort on a steamboat. Wood declined this favor on the ground that Abe was still in his minority and owed his services to his father. But an opportunity to see the outer world soon offered in this wise: About March 1, 1828, when Abraham was nineteen years of age, he was in the employment of James Gentry, whose son Allen Gentry was about to start on a flatboat trip to New Orleans to trade off a load of country produce. Needing a hand to aid, the Gentrys readily induced young Lincoln to go along at eight dollars per month and board.
The flatboat of early days was simply built of sufficient strength to last one downward trip, after which it would be converted into fuel. Two flat pieces of timber from thirty to fifty feet in length, two to three feet in breadth, and a foot in thickness were hewed out of a poplar log; one edge was level, the other two were bevelled at each end. These pieces were called gunwales—pronounced gunnels. Into these gunwales, at
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