The Slave Who Went with Them

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Clark's callousness toward York sits awkwardly with his portrayal as an American hero. That might be one reason why the new IMAX-National Geographic film on Lewis and Clark neglects it, saying only that Clark eventually freed York. Well, maybe. That is what Clark told Washington Irving in 1832, making certain his famous literary visitor knew that York's life as a freeman had been a failure. "'Damn this freedom,' said York," according to Irving's notes, "'I have never had a happy day since I got it.' He determined to go back to his old master--set off for St. Louis but was taken with the choke in Tennessee & died." Yet two months after this conversation, a fur trader named Zenas Leonard encountered a black man living among a band of Crow Indians. The man claimed to be York. Could he instead have run off, as Clark had feared?

Perhaps it's comforting to think that Clark freed York. But if it's comfort we're after, then between Clark's story of the demoralized ex-slave dying on his way back to beg his master's forgiveness and Leonard's story, I know which I prefer. Of the black man he met among the Crow, Leonard wrote, "He enjoys perfect peace and satisfaction, and has everything that he desires at his own command."

Brian Hall's novel about Lewis and Clark, I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company, will be published by Viking in January

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