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some of the initial investment. Flatboats carried a variety of goods to New
Orleans, including agricultural products like corn, wheat, potatoes, flour, hay, tobacco, cotton, and whiskey. Livestock such as chickens, cows, and pigs also made their way down the Mississippi in flatboats. Indiana native May Espey Warren recalled that as a young girl she saw a flatboat loaded with thousands of chickens headed down the Mississippi. Other raw materials from the Old Northwest, like lumber and iron, were also sent down the Mississippi to be sold in New Orleans.
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and bought passage on steamboats upriver. What had once been a three-month hike for many flatboaters now took only days. These reduced labor costs saw flatboat operating costs plummet and profits boom. In some cases steamboats would also drag cargo-carrying flatboats upriver, allowing flatboat operators to profit on the return journey as well. These uses of steamboats caused the flatboat industry to grow from 598 arrivals in New
Orleans in 1814 to 2,792 arrivals in 1847.
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boatmen," as opposed to the earlier "dealer boatmen" or "peddler boatmen" for whom flatboating was only a seasonal job. This change ended up benefiting the flatboat industry significantly, because it seriously reduced wreckage and loss of cargo. River improvements also helped, and experienced flatboat crews were able to reduce cargo losses from $ 1,362,500 in 1822 to $ 381,000 in 1832.
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trade along the
Mississippi and render flatboats obsolete. Steamboats and railroads simply carried freight much more quickly than flatboats, and could bring cargo upriver as well as downriver. By 1857, only 541 flatboats reached New Orleans, down from 2,792 in 1847, and also fewer than the 598 flatboats that had traveled down the Mississippi in 1814.
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greatly reduced the costs of flatboat journeys, and caused the trade to boom through the antebellum period. Introduced to the
Mississippi in the 1810s, the steamboat greatly reduced the time of the return journey for flatboat crews. After reaching New Orleans, many flatboat crews scuttled their craft
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There were a variety of specialized flatboats to ship cargo to world markets. Some flatboats were built with raked bows to be used on return trips alongside steamboats, serving as 'fuel flats', first hauling wood, then coal. These flatboats with raked bows evolved into coal boats. Coal boats were
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The flatboat trade stayed vigorous and lucrative throughout the antebellum period, aided by steamboats (and later by railroads) in returning crews upriver. However, these same technologies, which earlier had made the flatboat trade significantly more efficient, would eventually overtake the flatboat
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The steamboat also changed the nature of flatboat crews, making them more professional and more skilled. Returning upriver on steamboats allowed flatboat crews to make multiple journeys per year, which meant that a crew could earn a living wage simply by flatboating. These crews were known as "agent
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A flatboat itself was a serious investment for a
Midwestern farmer. One generally cost about $ 75 to construct in 1800 (which was equivalent to $ 1,346.47 in 2023), but could carry up to $ 3,000 worth of goods. These flatboats could typically be salvaged for around $ 16 in New Orleans, recouping
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was less organized and less professional than during later times. Flatboats were generally built and piloted by the farmers whose crops they carried. They were limited to 20 feet (or approximately 6 meters) in width in order to successfully navigate the river, but could range from 20 to 100 feet (or
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culture of lower
Louisiana. They also brought back exotic foods such as bananas, and animals such as parrots. Abraham Lincoln served as a flatboatman twice, in 1828 and 1831. It was on these journeys that he first witnessed slavery, and in New Orleans he also saw a slave auction firsthand. Lincoln
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The flatboat was the cheapest of the many types of boats used and became the standard conveyance for families moving west. All of the boats in this period were hand-powered, with poles or oars for steering, and usually floated with the current. They were not intended for round trips since the
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approximately 6 to 30 meters) in length. Flatboats could be built by unskilled farmers with limited tools and training, which made them an ideal mode of transport for isolated farmers living in the
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The flatboat trade also led to a series of cultural and regional exchanges between the North and the South. Many
Northern flatboatmen had not seen the
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before, and rural farmers of the time generally did not travel. Flatboatmen brought tales of antebellum mansions lining the
Mississippi and of the
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was the final destination for most flatboats headed down the
Mississippi, and it was from there that most of the goods were shipped on the oceans.
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was expensive and took weeks to make the journey up the
Mississippi. Returning to the northern reaches on foot required about three months.
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Many American cities along the river network of the Mississippi boomed due to the opportunities that the flatboat trade presented.
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A flatboat was almost always a one-way (downstream) vessel, and was usually dismantled for lumber when it reached its destination.
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are still common today, having been used for hundreds of years to transport goods downriver. Yoder shipped flour down the
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Carmony, Donald F.; Sam K. Swope (December 1964). "Flatboat Building on Little Raccoon Creek, Parke County, Indiana".
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tied together in fleets to be pushed by steamboats. Those coal boats evolved into the steel barges of today .
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would later recall these journeys as essential in shaping his personal views on slavery and the slave trade.
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of the river to propel them to New Orleans where their final product could be shipped overseas. Through the
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Mak, James; Gary M. Walton (June 1973). "The Persistence of Old Technologies: The Case of Flatboats".
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settlers used them only to get to their new homes and then broke them up for their lumber.
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engraving showing persons traveling down a river by flatboat in the late 1800s.
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George Caleb Bingham, Jolly Flatboatmen in Port, (1857, St. Louis Art Museum)
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457:. Big Bone Lick Historical Society, Janes Saddlebag. Archived from
434:. Big Bone Lick Historical Society, Janes Saddlebag. Archived from
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Allen, Michael (August 1990). "The Riverman as a Jacksonian Man".
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The flatboat trade first began in 1781, with Pennsylvania farmer
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Berry, "Western Prices Before 1861". London, 1943, pp.23-24
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became hubs for outfitting and supplying flatboat traders.
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History of Transportation in the United States before 1860
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Flatboats among the river traffic at New Orleans, 1873
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57:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
487:. Big Bone Lick Historical Society. Archived from
400:. Big Bone Lick Historical Society. Archived from
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655:George Caleb Bingham "Jolly Flatboatmen" c. 1857
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513:Records, T.W. (December 1946). "Flatboats".
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618:The Journal of Economic History
531:Meyer, Balthasar Henry, et al.
485:"Various Website History pages"
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398:"Various Website History pages"
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