Abraham was born a poor farmhand boy in Kentucky, but he moved from small cabins in Kentucky, Indiana, and finally settled in Illinois. He was a farmhand for his father in these states and didn't have much exposure to slavery, although, these states did have black/slave laws. Lincoln got his first dose of slavery at the age of eighteen when he was hired to take a flatboat down to New Orleans. I quote from Lincoln: A Photobiography "Lincoln would never forget the site of black men, women, and children being driven along in chains and being auctioned off like cattle." This still didn't change his "opinion" on slavery (he didn't have one).
In 1846, after experience in law and the Illinois state legislature, Lincoln was elected to the US House of Representatives as a member of the Whig party. As a member of the Illinois State Legislature he took a stand against slavery saying that slavery was "founded on both injustice and bad policy". He supported a bill to prohibit slavery in lands......
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