E I G H T H

O F

A N

O N G O I N G

S E R I E S

The forgotten hero

Clarks slave York shared in everything but the glory

RIGHT: Ed Hamiltons
hollow bronze statue
of York, William
Clarks slave, in Louisville, Ky., is 8 feet tall
and weighs 1,500
pounds. The stone
base, which depicts
a rock formation,
is about 4 feet
tall, 7 feet wide
and 7 feet long,
and weighs
22,000
pounds.

By LARRY WINSLOW
Tribune Assistant City Editor and
the Louisville Courier-Journal

BOTTOM
RIGHT:
York and
Meriwether
Lewis dog,
Seaman, are
a part of the
Bob Scriver
bronze
above the
Missouri
River at
Broadwater
Overlook in
Great Falls.
Hamilton bronze
photo by the
Louisville CourierJournal; Scriver
bronze photo from
Tribune files;
Tribune graphic
by Tak Uda

Sources:
Reporters
Sheldon S.
Shafer and Larry
Muhammad
of The (Louisville)
Courier-Journal.
The Lewis and
Clark Companion:
An Encyclopedic Guide
to the Voyage of
Discovery, by
Stephenie Ambrose
Tubbs with Clay Straus
Jenkinson; (2003)
Henry Holt and Co.

A large bronze statue of York, the

African-American slave who played a
key role in the success of the Lewis and
Clark Expedition, was unveiled last week
in Louisville, Ky.
The work by Ed Hamilton depicts York
as a brawny, bare-shouldered
hunter, with a gun in one hand,
a dead duck in the other, and
a knife and tomahawk stuck
in his belt.
Although no image of York
is known, documents refer
to him as strong and tall.
Hamilton said he tried to
give York an appearance
of dignity, strength, compassion and wonderment.
He hunted and fished
on the expedition, and
often served as a
scout. Indians who
had never encountered a black man
before held him in
awe because of
his strength and
size.
York, who
spent most of
his life in
Louisville,
was born in
1772. As a boy
he was assigned as
childhood
companion to William
Clark, co-leader of Corps
of Discovery.
He was married but
separated from his wife
because slavery often split
families among different
owners.
As Clarks slave, York
shared the hardships and
heroism of the expedition. He helped pole the
boats, fished, hunted,
functioned as an emissary to Indians, and risked
his life for Clark.
York was never an official member of the party,
said Jim Holmberg, curator

COURTESY OF THE MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

A 1908 watercolor York by C.M. Russell depicts a meeting between

Chief Le Borgne and Clarks slave, York. The chief was trying
to remove the color from Yorks skin.

for the Filson Historical Society in Louisville. He did everything that everybody
else did: hunt, track. Hed grown up on
the frontier like these guys had and was
their equal but never gets completely
away from being a servant of Clark.
Of course, because of his black skin
the party started using him as a way to
advance themselves in a tight spot and
impress the Indians by saying, We have
a black man with us, which must have
been quite a concept to Indians who
had never seen a black man. Some of
the tribes thought he had tremendous
spiritual power and called him Big
Medicine.
According to Lewis journals, a
Hidatsa chief named Le Borgne
examined York closely and spit on
his finger to try to rub the black
paint off. Only when York removed his hat and showed his
short hair was the
chief convinced
he was not a
painted white
man.
This
scene in-

spired a famous painting by Charles M.

Russell titled York.
Much has been made by historians
about the election in which the party
voted on which side of the Columbia
River to build its winter camp in 1805.
Both the Indian woman Sacagawea and
York were allowed to vote, an act unheard of back in the United States at
that time.
Holmberg said the expedition "planted
a seed of freedom that took root" in York.
After the expedition, York got none
of the rewards the others did. He complained to Clark about being separated
from his wife and was beaten and jailed
for constantly demanding his freedom.
Clark finally freed him sometime after
1811. According to Clark, however, York
failed in his delivery business and wanted to rejoin Clark in St. Louis.
York died in 1832 in
Tennessee.