Shawneetown

SHAWNEETOWN Traditional

In 1826, young Abraham got a job operating a ferry at Anderson Creek on the Ohio River. Here he saw his first river men and flatboats and in 1828, he made his first of two trips to New Orleans working as a hand on a flatboat. Some distance downstream from the ferry, on the southern Ohio River past Louisville, Shawneetown was a notorious trading center for all manner of goods and services, both legal and illicit.
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The song Shawneetown was collected by folklorist and musician Dillon Bustin, who heard part of it as child in southern Indiana and picked up the rest from printed sources.