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York (c. 1770-March 1831?) was an American slave best known for his service with the Lewis and Clark Expedition and subsequent demands for freedom.
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Early life
York, his father (also known as York), his mother Rose and younger sister and brother Nancy and Juba, were slaves of the Clark family.1 York was born in Caroline County near Ladysmith, Virginia. He was William Clark's servant from boyhood, and was left to William in his father's will.2He had a wife, and possibly, a family before the Lewis and Clark Expedition.3
The Lewis and Clark expedition
In 1804, York was compelled to leave his family and accompany Clark and 40 others on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The expedition's journals4 present York as a large, strong man who shared the duties and risks of the expedition in full. He was the only African American member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and in the wilderness served as an equal member, with freedoms and responsibilities unlike back East. The assignments given him, as recorded in the journals, attest to his skill in scouting, hunting and field medicine. When the expedition reached the Pacific Ocean, York voted along with the rest as to where the Expedition would build winter quarters. Most significantly, at a time in which slaves were forbidden to carry weapons, York not only carried a firearm but also frequently shot game such as buffalo.
Clark's journals recorded that York's skin and hair interested Native Americans. In Clark's words: "Those Indians were much astonished ... they never saw a black man before, all flocked around him & examined him from top to toe". "Then they(the indians) tried to wash off the 'dirt' from his skin with mud and water". (sic) 5
After the Expedition
Historian Robert B. Betts speculates that the freedom York had during the Lewis and Clark expedition made resuming enslavement unbearable.6 After the expedition returned to the United States, every other member received money and land for their services. York received nothing, since as a slave he was considered mere property. York apparently asked Clark for his freedom based upon his good services during the expedition. Failing that, York pleaded to be reunited with his wife, who was owned by a man in Louisville; he even offered to work in Louisville and send Clark all his earnings. Clark refused, pleaded financial difficulties, although he let York send a couple of buffalo robes to his wife and, a couple of years later, visit her for a few weeks.
Clark's attitude is recorded in letters to his brother. When York returned from his visit to his wife, Clark considered him still "insolent and sulky" and disciplined him with beatings. He considered selling York in New Orleans, or hiring him out to a "severe master". York continued demanding freedom, Clark hired him out to others.
York's eventual fate is not clear. One story is that Clark set him free sometime after 1816 and set him up in business hauling freight; another is that York was indeed a drayer but still a slave. Washington Irving has written that Clark told him in 1832 that York failed in business because he didn't like the responsibilities of being free, and had died of cholera while trying to rejoin Clark in St. Louis. Betts hints that this story is implausible and more likely reflects Clark's belief that slaves were happier under the firm hand of a master.
Historian Áhati N. N. Touré suggests another possibility: that York simply refused to return to Clark, and escaped to freedom. Betts cites a witness who met with an African man living among the Crows in north-central Wyoming, who boasted in 1834 of having escaped from slavery after participating in the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Legacy
A statue of York, by sculptor Ed Hamilton, with plaques commemorating the Lewis and Clark Expedition and his participation in it, stands at Louisville's Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere, next to the wharf on the Ohio River.
The opera "York" (composer Bruce Trinkley and librettist Jason Charnesky ), based on York's life, was composed for the first international conference on the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial and performed at Penn State Opera Theatre.7
Historians of the Jim Crow Era invented tales of York's sexual prowess and his role as the expedition's buffoon; however the expedition journal refutes them and they are most likely artifacts of that era's prejudices.citation needed
References
- ^ Áhati N. N. Touré (April, 2006). "Fallout over Freedom". Lewis and Clark.org. Retrieved on March 06, 2008.
- ^ English, 49
- ^ "The Lewis and Clark Journey of Discovery". United States National Park Service (April, 2006). Retrieved on March 06, 2008.
- ^ "Lewis and Clark Journals (citations to "York")". Lewis and Clark.org. Retrieved on March 07, 2008.
- ^ "York - William Clark's man-servant on the Lewis and Clark Expedition". Retrieved on March 07, 2008.
- ^ *Robert Betts (1985). In Search of York: The Slave Who Went to the Pacific with Lewis and Clark. Colorado Associated University Press. ISBN 0-8708-1714-0.
- ^ "York: The Voice of Freedom". Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved on March 06, 2008.
- "York". The Encyclopedia of Louisville. (2001).
- “York: The Voice of Freedom” : http://www.truveo.com/York-Voice-of-Freedom/id/386811679
- English, William Hayden. Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio, 1778–1783, and Life of Gen. George Rogers Clark. 2 volumes. Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1896.
See also
External links
- Clark's Unrepentant Captive
- Lewis and Clark Journals, Members of the Expedition (U. Nebraska)
- Who was York?
- York (Lewis and Clark) at Find A Grave
- Lewis and Clark website @ PBS [1]
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 3 November 2008, at 19:22.
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