Note 7 — ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Reading edition
Footnote 7:
(return)
"No doubt the young Kentuckian was disgusted [with what he saw in the New Orleans slave auction]; but there is no proof that this was his first object lesson in human slavery, or that, as so often has been asserted, he turned to his companion and said, 'If I ever get a chance to hit slavery, I will hit it hard.' Such an expression from a flatboat-man would have been absurd."—Personal Reminiscences of 1840-1890, by L.E. Chittenden.