York of the Corps of Discovery

Betts provides one of the first serious scholarly studies of York, the enslaved man owned by William Clark who became a full participant in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The article documents York’s significant contributions to the journey, including his role as hunter, laborer, and cultural intermediary — many Native nations had never encountered a Black person, and York became a figure of intense curiosity and, in some cases, reverence. Betts examines the remarkable moment when York was allowed to vote in the democratic decision about winter camp location in November 1805, an act without precedent for an enslaved person. The article then traces the troubling aftermath, as Clark refused York’s repeated requests for freedom following the expedition, eventually hiring him out and possibly separating him from his wife. Betts evaluates the conflicting accounts of York’s ultimate fate, including Clark’s 1832 claim that York had been freed but died of cholera.