THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508180471
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
York, a Virginia-born slave of William Clark, one of the leaders of the trailblazing Lewis and Clark western expedition of 1804-6, is an African-American folk hero whose accomplishments deserve to be better known.
A son of Old York and Rose, house servants of the Clark family of Caroline County, York was born around 1770. When the Clarks moved to Kentucky in 1785, York accompanied them. Fourteen years later, when York's master died, he was inherited by his son, William, who was already using the personable young black as his valet.
When Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson, approved the geographical and scientific exploration of the vast, uncharted western territory of the United States, much of which had been gained by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Clark was chosen with Meriwether Lewis to head the trek. Feeling the necessity of York's services, Clark took him along.
At that time, according to Richard Dillon's biography of Lewis, York was ``an obsidian-black man and a jolly giant of a fellow,'' whose wit and ingenuity eventually made the long and arduous journey seem easier for the party.
It was York's first taste of freedom, and the two years he spent in the wilderness were the climax of his life. Quick to learn, he soon acquired a smattering of French as well as several Indian tongues. Once Lewis and Clark realized this, York was increasingly used as a middle man. Since he was a skilled hunter in his youth, York was also employed to provide game for the exploring party.
Setting out from St. Louis, Mo., in the spring of 1804, Lewis and Clark, accompanied by 23 soldiers, three interpreters and York, ascended the Missouri River, spent the winter among the Mandan Indians of North Dakota and descended the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean in 1805. Thus, York became the first African American to reach the mouth of the Columbia River overland.
Meanwhile, York's great physical size and strength and the density of his color had made him a demigod with the Indians. Since they had never seen a black man before, they ``all flocked around him and examined him from top to toe.'' Soon, York had more than enough admirers among the squaws, for according to the same source: ``He continued to enjoy the favors of the Indian women all the way to the Pacific.''
Besides being the first black western Lothario, York was also quite a showman. He informed the unsuspecting Native Americans that he had been ``a wild animal that ate young children, who had been caught and tamed by his master.'' When Clark heard this, he was not amused and ordered York to stop pulling the Indians' legs. Henceforth, York toned down his act, for the journals of the expedition show he continued to be held in high esteem for his skill and public relations value.
Unfortunately, after the expedition returned east in 1806, York found it increasingly difficult to readjust to a slave society. But he continued to serve as Clark's valet until 1831, when the latter went to St. Louis as the governor of the Missouri Territory and superintendent of Indian Affairs. Even though Clark offered to take him along, York demurred, and he was hired out near Louisville, Ky., so that he could be near his wife, a slave in a local family.
Clark eventually set York free and provided him with a wagon and six horses so he could set himself up as an independent, free black businessman. But the venture was a failure, and York set out sometime in the 1830s to join Clark in St. Louis. En route, he died of cholera.
York is not completely forgotten. At some point during the expedition, Charles M. Russell, the great western artist, immortalized York in a painting in which he is depicted in the act of performing a buck and wing dance for an appreciative Mandan Indian audience. the picture is now in the Montana Museum of History in Helena. by CNB