YORK and CLARK, companions

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Updated: Tuesday, October 16, 2012

By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman

 

York, a black man, was one of the earliest explorers of the Louisiana Purchase.

He was a “servant” of William Clark, a leader of the Louis and Clark Expedition, which was commissioned by United States President Thomas Jefferson to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase, and to report back its findings in 1804.

York, whom William Clark referred to as his “servent,” was born in Virginia on William Clark’s father’s plantation.  They had been playmates since their infancy.

They had done everything together as boys:  play, wrestle, run, swim, hunt, fish, and look out for one another. Clark, however, was always the boss, because at that time most—but not all-- black people were the chattel slaves of some—but not all-- white people. That was the way life was back in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s in Virginia.

York could also read and write and cipher—that is, he could count and figure: add, subtract, multiply, and divide. He had learned these skills along with William Clark, who had had a private tutor to teach him. Most slaves were not taught to read, write and to cipher, because their masters were afraid they might demand their freedom, or run away, once educated. But, York and Clark were practically inseparable, so they also learned together, despite the custom of those times.

York, being the body servant of William Clark, grew up in Clark’s shadow. Where you saw Clark, you saw York. And, when you saw Clark, you saw York. They were so close, even their names rhyme, Clark & York.

Now the Louisiana Purchase was a large tract of land covering 15 states, west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, and south of Canada. It easily doubled the size of the 13 original British colonies, which then comprised the
United States of America. The United States government purchased this land very cheaply from France in 1803, for roughly 3 cents per acre. 

France, whose leader was Napoleon Bonaparte, had been defeated on the island of Hispaniola, in the nation of “Haiti,” by the black military genius, and former slave, Toussaint L’Overture. Toussaint’s top commander, General Jean Jacques Dessalines, administered the coup de grace to French General LeClerc and 30,000 crack troops in an epochal uprising of that nation’s black slaves.  It is the only successful slave revolt in world history. http://www.blackpast.org/?q=gah/haitian-revolution-1791-1804

The island of Hispaniola is the first land on which the Italian adventurer, Christopher Columbus walked, when he “discovered the so-called New World in 1492,” some 300 years earlier, claiming it for Spain, aboard three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1033.html  

At the time of the Louisiana Purchase, however, “Hispaniola” was half-Spanish, “Santo Domingo” and half-French, “Saint Dominigue.” Both western European nations had enslaved and imported hundreds of thousands of African chattel slaves, to grow sugarcane and other crops. “Chattel” means personal property like cattle or horses or crops.

In addition to its land on the island of Hispaniola, Saint Dominigue, France also laid claim to vast tracts of land on the North American continent, itself, including New Orleans, Louisiana, and all lands to the west of the Mississippi River and south of Canada. These lands came to be known as “The Louisiana Territory.” A French explorer named Rene LaSalle had claimed these lands for France in 1682 after canoeing down the Mississippi River from Fort Wayne, Indiana . He renamed the Mississippi basin in honor of Louis XIV, king of France. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9-Robert_Cavelier,_Sieur_de_La_Salle These were the vast lands which Thomas Jefferson, the 3^rd President, commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, his fellow Virginians, to explore, to map, survey and describe

Saint- Dominique was by far and away the richest French possession in all North America. When Sainte Dominique  was lost to the blacks, in a brutal and costly war, the chastened French decided to sell all of its “Louisiana TerritoryLouisiana Purchase (film)Louisiana Purchase is a 1941 film adaptation of the musical theatre play, Louisiana Purchase. A Paramount Pictures production, the film was directed by Irving Cummings with Robert Emmett Dolan serving as musical director as he had done for the play. Starring comedian Bob Hope, the film featured Vera Zorina, Victor Moore and Irène Bordoni reprising their stage roles. Raoul Pene Du Bois did the production and costume design and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color. The cinematography was by ...,” not just the City of New Orleans, which the Americans had sought for trade purposes; but to sell it all to the Americans at any price, thereby enabling Napoleon to finance and to wage other wars in Europe.

The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states, one federal district, and fourteen territories. The country is situated almost entirely in the western hemisphere: its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie in central North America between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico ...United States of approximately 530 million acresAn acre is the name of a unit of area in a number of different systems, including Imperial units and United States customary units. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. One acre comprises 4,840 square yards or 43,560 square feet. Because of alternative definitions of a yard or a foot, the exact size of an acre also varies slightly. Related units of length are the acre's length of one furlong (220 yards) and the acre's breadth of one ...acres (828,000 sq miA square mile is an Imperial unit of area equal the area of a square of one statute mile (≈1,609 m) in length on each side. It is not a metric unit. The other major Imperial unit of area is the acre, of which there are 640 in a square mile. It should not be confused with the archaic miles square, which refers to the number of miles on each side squared. For instance, 20 miles square (20 x 20 miles) is equal to 400 square miles.sq mi or 2,100,000 km²Square kilometre (U.S. spelling: square kilometer), symbol km², is a decimal multiple of SI unit of surface area square metre, one of the SI derived units. 1 km² is equal to: *the area of a square measuring 1 kilometre on each side *1, 000, 000 m² *100 hectares *0.386 102 square miles (statute) *247.105 381 acres Conversely: *1 m² = 0.000 001 km² *1 ...km²) of FrenchFrance (French: ), officially the French Republic (, ), is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various overseas islands and territories located in other continents.For more information, see :Category:French overseas departments, territories and collectivities. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. French people often refer to Metropolitan ...French territory in 1803, at the cost of about 3¢ per acre (7¢ per haA hectare (symbol ha, pronounced ) is a unit of area equal to 10,000 square metres, or one square hectometre, and commonly used for measuring land area. A 100m square is one ha. Its base unit, the are, was defined by older forms of the metric system, but neither it nor the hectare are part of the modern metric system. The Comité International des Poids et Mesures classifies ...ha); totaling $The dollar (currency code USD and 840) is the unit of currency of the United States. It is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, USD, or as US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. The U.S. dollar is divided into 100 cents. Adopted by the Congress of the Confederation of the United States on July 6, 1785Journals of the Continental Congress --Wednesday, JULY 6, 1785., the U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions.The Implementation ...$15 million or 80 million French francsThe franc (represented by the franc sign ₣ or more commonly just F) is a former currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money. It was re-introduced (in decimal form) in 1795 and remained the national currency until the introduction of the euro in 1999 (for accounting purposes) and 2002 (coins and banknotes).French francs. Including interest, America finally paid $23,213,568 for the Louisiana territory. The land purchased contained all of present-day ArkansasThe State of Arkansas (IPA: /IPA chart for English|/) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Arkansas is sometimes considered a part of the Southwest, and is a part of the old southwest according to legendary stories. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozarks and the Ouachita ...Arkansas, MissouriMissouri (IPA: /IPA chart for English|/) is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by eight states: Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri was originally purchased from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The Missouri Territory was admitted into the union as the 24th state in 1821. The state has 114 counties and one independent city. St. Louis, a large city in Missouri is known as the "Gateway to the West" ...Missouri, IowaThe State of Iowa (IPA: /IPA chart for English|/) is a state in the midwestern region of the United States of America. It is the 29th state of the United States, having joined the Union on December 28, 1846. The state is named for the Native American Ioway people. It is known as the "Hawkeye State" or the "Tall Corn State".Iowa, OklahomaOklahoma (IPA: /IPA chart for English|/) is a state located in the south-central region of the United States of America. Nicknamed the "Sooner State," it is part of a region commonly known as the American Heartland. The state's name, derived from the Choctaw words okla and homma, ...Oklahoma, KansasThe State of Kansas (IPA: /IPA chart for English|/) is a Midwestern statehttp://www.census.gov/geo/www/ us_regdiv.pdf in the central region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the American "Heartland". It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, from the French "Cansez", by explorer Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, and after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited ...Kansas, NebraskaNebraska is a state located on the Great Plains of the United States of America. Nebraska gets its name from a Chiwere word meaning "flat water," after the Platte River that flows through the state. Once considered part of the Great American Desert, it is now a leading farming state. Nebraskans have practiced scientific farming to turn the Nebraska prairie into a land of ranches and farms. Much of the history of the state is the story of the impact of the Nebraska farmer. Nebraskans are sometimes colloquially referred to as "Cornhuskers" ...Nebraska, Minnesota' (pronounced: ) is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. The twelfth-largest state by area in the U.S., it is the 21st most populous, with just over five million residents as of 2006. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the 32nd state on May 11, 1858. The state is ...Minnesota south of Mississippi RiverThe Mississippi River, derived from the old Ojibwe word misi-ziibi meaning 'great river' (gichi-ziibi 'big river' at its headwaters), is the second-longest river in North America, with a length of 2320 miles (3733 km) from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. The longest of the ...Mississippi River, much of North DakotaNorth Dakota (IPA: /IPA chart for English|/) is a state in both the Midwestern and Western regions of the United States of America. It is the northernmost of the Great Plains states and is the northern half of The Dakotas which also includes South Dakota. During the ...North Dakota, nearly all of South Dakota{{nowrap|[[South Dakota, northeastern New MexicoThe State of New Mexico (IPA: /IPA chart for English|/, Spanish: Estado de Nuevo México/Méjico) is a state in the southwestern region of the United States of America. Over its relatively long history it has also been occupied by Native American populations and has been part of the Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, a state of Mexico and a U.S. territory. Among U.S. states, New ...New Mexico, northern TexasTexas (IPA: /IPA chart for English|/) is a state located in the southern and southwestern regions of the United States of America. With an area of and a population of 23,507,783 (based on a 2006 U.S. census bureau estimate) in 254 counties, the state is second-largest in both area (behind Alaska) and ...Texas, the portions of MontanaMontana (IPA: /IPA chart for English|/) is a state in the Pacific Northwest and Great Plains regions of the United States of America. The central and western thirds of the state have numerous mountain ranges (approximately 77 named) of the northern Rocky Mountains; thus the ...Montana, WyomingThe State of Wyoming (IPA: /IPA chart for English|/) is a state in the western region of the United States of America. The easternmost section of the state is a region known as the High Plains due to its altitude above sea level, while the majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountain West. Wyoming is the least ...Wyoming, and ColoradoThe State of Colorado (IPA: /IPA chart for English|/) is a state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. Colorado may also be considered to be a part of the Western, Southwestern, Midwestern, and Central regions of the United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the state population was 4,753,377 ...Colorado east of the Continental DivideContinental Divide or Great Divide is the name given to the North American portion of the mountainous ridge which separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from, 1) those river systems which drain into the Atlantic Ocean (including those which drain via the Gulf of Mexico), and 2) along the northernmost reaches of the Divide, those river systems which drain ...Continental Divide, and LouisianaThe State of Louisiana [ or, , pronounced Media:Louisiane.ogg|] is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. The capital of Louisiana is Baton Rouge and the most populous city is New Orleans. The largest parish by population is Jefferson Parish and largest by area is Terrebonne Parish (Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are ...Louisiana on both sides of the Mississippi River, including the city of New OrleansIts status as a world-famous tourist destination is due in part to its architecture, music, cuisine, its annual Mardi Gras, and other celebrations and festivals. The city is often referred to as "The most unique city in America."Institute of New Orleans History and Culture at Gwynedd-Mercy CollegeBehind the Scenes: Hurricane on the BayouMaps of World: New OrleansNew Orleans: A Choice Between Destruction and Reparations, by David Billings, The Fellowship of Reconciliation, November/December 2005BringNewOrleansBack.org ...New Orleans. (The Oklahoma Panhandle, and southwestern portions of Kansas and Louisiana were still claimed by SpainSpain (, ), officially the Kingdom of Spain, is a country located in Southern Europe, with three exclaves in North Africa. The Spanish mainland is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south and east, by the Bay of Biscay to the north and by the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands off the African coast. It shares land borders with Portugal, France, Andorra, Gibraltar, and Morocco. It is the largest of the three sovereign ...Spain at the time of the Purchase.) In addition, the Purchase contained small portions of land that would eventually become part of the Canadian provinces of AlbertaAlberta (IPA: /æl.bɝ.tə/) is one of Canada's western provinces. It became a province on September 1, 1905. Alberta is located in Western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, Northwest Territories to the north, and by the U.S. state of Montana to the south. Alberta is one of two provinces (the other being New Brunswick) to border only a single U.S. state. It is ...Alberta and SaskatchewanSaskatchewan (IPA: /sə.skætʃ.ə.'ʍɔn/), (middle of Canada's three prairie provinces, has an area of 588,276.09 square kilometres (227,134.67 sq mi) and population of 990,212 (according to 2007 estimates), mostly living in the southern half of the province. Of these, 202,340 live in the province's largest city, Saskatoon, while 179,246 live in the provincial capital, Regina. Other major ...Saskatchewan. The land included in the purchase comprises around 23% of the territory of the modern United States.

The purchase was an important moment in the presidency of Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S. – 4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. Major events during his presidency ...Thomas Jefferson. At the time, it faced domestic opposition as being possibly unconstitutionalThe United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. It was adopted in its original form on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later ratified by conventions in each state ...unconstitutional. Although he already knew, being one of its authors, that the U. S. Constitution did not contain any provisions for acquiring territory, Jefferson decided to purchase the “Louisiana Territory” because he felt uneasy about France and Spain having the power to block American traders' access to the port of New Orleans.  [http://www.glossary.com/encyclopedia.php?q=Louisiana Purchase

 

President Jefferson  at that time was President of the American Philosophical Society, a scientific association of leading men, one of whom was its co-founder, Benjamin Franklin.  Jefferson sent Meriweather Lewis and William Clark (accompanied by York) to study under and to learn from these savants, before they were sent forth on this expedition, concerning the scientific, linguistic, and anthropological aspects of their impending exploration of the Louisiana Territory.

Other explorers had preceded Lewis , Clark and York, in exploring parts of the Louisiana Territory, at least one of whom was also black. His name was Jean Baptiste Point DuSable.  Not only was this black French-speaking trapper and wealthy trader renowned for founding the City of Chicago, Illinois, but he was also an early settler of, retired in, the City of St. Charles, Missouri, the first state capitol. http://www.dusableheritage.com/history.htm

Ironically, during the American Revolution, in 1779, Point DuSable, the black  trader, was arrested briefly by the British for having helped William Clark’s brother, American Gen. George Rogers Clark to win at the critical battle of Vincennes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baptiste_Pointe_du_Sable   So, as York helped William Clark, Jean Baptiste Point DuSable was alleged to have helped another Clark, George.

The exploratory party set out from Illinois, in May 1804, near the juncture of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and traveled upstream on the Missouri River in keel boats and pirogues some 1500 miles. Along the way Lewis and Clark kept journals, collected samples and made astronomical observations from which they drew lines of longitude and latitude and mapped the river and its environs.

What ever happened to York, who had tasted the freedom of the wilderness is a very interesting historical question. My research discloses that after returning to St. Louis and discovering that his wife had been sold “down the river” from Kentucky into the Deep South to parts unknown, that he returned to Indian territory, up the Missouri, and finished out his days with 4 Indian wives.

Below I set forth additional research on this interesting subject.

“YORK”: BIG, BLACK, MEDICINE MAN

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

By Larry Delano Coleman, Esq.

 

Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, according to an April 1, 1804, “Journals” entry, included York, a “negro slave of Captain Clark’.” York is included among the roster of persons on the Lewis and Clark expedition, who were not on the “official pay-roll” (p.12, footnote 1).  Other non-payroll roster members included: “Two interpreters, George Drewyer (or Drouillard) and Toussaint Charbonneau; an Indian woman, Sacajawea (“Bird Woman”), Charbonneau’s wife.

 

Passed a projecting rock on which was painted a figure and a Creek… opposite a verry bad Sand bar of several miles in extent, which we named Sand C, here my servent York Swam to the Sand bar to geather Greens for our dinner, and returned with sufficient quantity wild Creases [Cresses] or Tung [Tongue] grass… (p.40) (June 4, 1804)

 

“I saw Pelicans to day on a sand bar, My Servent York nearly loseing an eye by a man throwing Sand into it…” (p. 53) (June 18, 2004)

 

According to William Clark, in a journal entry dated October 9, 1804,

States that the Indians were “much astonished at my black Servent, who did not lose the opportunity of displaying his powers Strength &c. &c.  this nation never saw a black man before.” (p.185) “By way of amusement [York] to them that he had once been a wild animal, and caught and tamed by his master; and to convince them showed them feats of strength which added to his looks made him more terrible than we wished him to be.--Biddle (I, p. 101).

 

In a rare pamphlet entitled Adventures of Zenas Leonard (Clearfield, Pa. 1839)--for information regarding which see Chittenden’s American Fur Trade, I, p. 397--is an account of a negro residing (1832-1834) in the Crow village at the junction of Bighorn and Stinking rivers, who apparently was Clark’s servant York.  He told Leonard that he first went to that country with Lewis and Clark, with whom he returned to Missouri; and he afterward accompanied a trader up the Missouri, and had remained with the Indians ever since (about ten or twelve years).  He had, when Leonard saw him, four Indian wives, and possessed much reputation and influence among the Crows, from whom he secured the return of some horses which they had stolen from Leonard’s party.---Walter B. Douglas (St. Louis). (p. 185, n.1) (April 1, 1804)

 

“I Derected My  all Servent York with me to kill a Buffalow near the boat from a number then scattered in the Plains.  I saw at one view near the river at least 500 Buffalow, those animals have been in view day feeding in the plains…” (p. 143) (September 8, 1804)

 

“Several of the Curious Chiefs whome wished to see the Boat which was very curious to them viewing it as great medison, (whatever is mysterious or unintelligible is called great medicine) as they also viewed my black Servent.” (p.209) 10/28/1804

 

Those people are much pleased with my black Servent.  Their womin verry fond of caressing our men &c. (p.194) 10/15/1804)

 

Those Indians were much astonished at my Servent, they never Saw a black man before, all flocked around him & examin him from top to toe, he Carried on the joke and made himself more turribal than we wished him to doe.  (p. 186) October 11, 1804.

 

“[W]e made up the presents and entertained several of the curious chiefs whome, wished to see the Boat which was verry curious to them viewing it as great medison, (whatever is mysterious or unintelligible is called great medicine) as they also Viewed my black Servent.” (p. 209) (October 28, 2004).

 

“I found them much pleased at the Dancing of our men, I ordered my black Servent to Dance which amused the Croud Verry much, and Somewhat astonished them, that So large a man should be active…” (p. 243) (December 28, 1804).

 

York was also an interpreter.  He is listed among other interpreters as “a Black man by the name of York, servant to Captain Clark.” (p. 284) April 7, 1805; also (p.229) November 30, 1804.  “the method of Lewis and Clark’s communications with the Indians: “A mulatto, who spoke bad French and worse English, served as interpreter to the Captains, so that a single word to be understood by the party required to pass from the Natives to the woman [Sacajawea, Indian wife of Charboneau, who could not speak English], from the woman to the husband, from the husband to the mulatto, from the mulatto to the captains.”--Ed. (“Mulatto” reference to York, or someone else?) (p.229, n.1) (November 30, 1804)

 

“[T]his day being Cold Several men returned a little frost bit, one of the men with his feet badly frost bit my Servents feet also frosted & his P----s (penis?) a little…” (p. 235) (December 8, 1804)

 

Interpreters, George Drewyer and Tauasant Charbono also a Black man by the name of York, servant to Capt. Clark, an Indian Woman wife to Charbono with a young vhild, and a Mandan man who had promised us to accompany us as far as the Snake Indians with a view to bring about a good understanding and friendly intercourse between that nation and his own… (p.284) (April 7, 2005)

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