What do we know about York? Honestly, not a whole lot. But we do know some, and mostly from Clark's journal or his family's records. Steven Ambrose does a great job of bringing York to life with this tiny bit of record in Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (1996).

He was born about 1770 to "Old York" and Rose, both enslaved blacks owned by William Clark's father, John. York was assigned to William as a young boy - he would have grown up serving Clark as a body servant and "companion slave" which was so common in plantation America it was pretty much ubiquitous. It is believed Old York was the body servant of his father, John, which tracks. He would have been about Clark's age or perhaps a "bit younger" and would have been early 30s when the expedition was formed. This is where we meet York in Ambrose's retelling, being described as;

[B]ig, very dark, strong, agile, a natural athlete.

In October of 1804 the Corps stopped at a Arikara village. The tribe, their nation decimated by multiple smallpox outbreaks between the 1770s and arrival of the Corp, had never seen a black man - and this was a huge black man. They didn't know what to think, questioning if he was man, beast, or spirit being. He jokingly played it up, roaring at the Arikara children and "chasing" them between the lodges while "bellowing that he was a wild beast caught and tamed by Capt Clark." Eventually the captains grew tired and made York knock of the children's games. Meanwhile, the Arikara warriors were eager to gain some of the white visitors power, so they offered their wives (sexually) as a medium to achieve this. They called York "the big Medison" and at least one warrior escorted him to his home, offered his wife, then guarded the door for them. They may not have given power to the natives, but they certainly took something away - STD's brought by earlier Europeans to the village. There is no mention if York was or wasn't one of the many Corps members infected after the meeting, but there's certainly a good chance he was.

York was brave and well trusted on the expedition, at one point getting herbal medicine for a sick Clark and jumping in to save him when he nearly drowned, risking his own life in the process. He was permitted to hunt, which giving an enslaved man a rifle wasn't too common. He was very likely the first black man to "vote" in a government decision of any kind in America, with both he and Sacagawea casting a vote on a decision of where to make camp at one point, making her the first woman and first Native American to vote on anything in the nation. York was also the first black man known to cross the North American continent.

There are other references, namely of how much a curiosity to native tribes he was. Lewis even stalled the Shoshone at one point by describing him; their eagerness to see such a man increased their patience with Lewis.

After the expedition Clark moved from Virginia to St Louis, taking a job dealing with "Indian Affairs" there. York, of course, moved too.

In another sign of trust, York was given 4$ in August of 1808 for costs he incurred searching for another man who had runaway from Clark. It was about this time the fell out. York felt he was owed his freedom for his dedication and service on the long expedition. Clark had freed another man, Ben, years earlier for services rendered so it wasn't an insane demand. Clark would have none of it. In fact when they had returned all men recieved double pay and 320 acres of land - all except York, who recieved exactly nothing for his service. What's more, he was married. Clark records York shipping a fur back to his wife in the journal, so it's no wonder he was eager to be free; he was owed land, or at least freedom, and the ability to be near his wife. He even offered to move to Louisville and rent his labor, then forward the funds to Clark, but it was also refused. Clark let him visit her in Kentucky instead, for about a week. When he returned he was "sulky" and had a bit of an attitude about being back in St Louis. While away Clark wrote his brother proposing to rent him to a "severe master" to illustrate how bad others had it. He complained York had such a notion to be free that he did "not expect he will be of much service to me again." He threatened that if he didn't return from the trip, he'd sell him far off in New Orleans, and to a brutal owner. He consulted then Governor Lewis who convinced him instead to rent him in Kentucky, which he ultimately did - but not before a particularly disturbing event. Returning "insolent and sulky" and being "of very little service," Clark was going to set the tone;

I gave him a severe trouncing the other day and he has much mended.

For coming back but being pissed that he was stiffed on compensation and denied not only his freedom but also the notion of being with his family and paying Clark for it, he was beaten.

Sadly, York wound up rented on a plantation run by Mr. Young in Kentucky, who was notoriously brutal. It is unclear if he was able to see his wife, but soon after her owner moved to Mississippi and it is most likely that the winter of 1808/1809 is the last time he saw his wife and assumed children. Nothing is currently known of her beyond this.

York remained enslaved and was recorded in the early 1810s as still being with Clark. Later, in 1832, Clark reported that he had eventually freed York but that York had taken to freedom so poorly he wanted to return to Clark. In doing so he contracted cholera in Tennessee and there he died, trying to return to Clark and surrender the freedom he so desperately sought.

Another tale persists as well; traders in the Rockies in the mid 1830s reported meeting an old black man with the Crow tribe that claimed to have originally come west with Lewis and Clark. While we don't know, I can tell you which story I believe.

That's almost the end of York's story, but there was one final piece added to capstone his service. As one of his last acts as President, on Jan 17 2001, Bill Clinton posthumously appointed both York and Sacagawea to the position of Honorary Sergant, US Regular Army.