Clark, York, and Slavery

The mistake should never be made that the two men were friends. They were master and slave, owner and property, superior and inferior. As close as that relationship was for the many years and countless miles they were by each other’s side, for all the dangers and hardships they shared their relationship always was based on William as master and York as servant.

George Rogers Clark

Jefferson put in George Clark’s hands the creation of an entire military infrastructure to defend the West. Clark was asked to whip together all the administrative structure of an army: quartermasters, commissaries, artificers, officers, and even washerwomen to keep the men uniformed, armed, disciplined, and fed.

Concomly

Concomly was a prominent Chinook citizen and leader whose people lived on the north side of the Columbia estuary, on the shore of Haley’s Bay. On November 17, 1805, he introduced himself to Lewis and Clark at Station Camp.

Albert Gallatin

To help the Lewis and Clark expedition, Gallatin asked Nicholas King to prepare a new map of western North America incorporating the main features of nine of the most recent maps by other explorers.

Tetoharsky

Tetoharsky, along with Twisted Hair, accompanied the expedition down the Clearwater and lower Snake Rivers, acting as river guides and interpreters. They continued down the Columbia to The Dalles.

Twisted Hair

Twisted Hair helped Clark locate a canoe-building site, drew maps of the route to the mouth of the Columbia, and along with Tetoharsky, traveled with the expedition to The Dalles of the Columbia.

Toby, Indispensable Guide

Toby, the name used by Lewis and Clark for the Shoshone guide who took them across the Bitterroot Mountains on their journey to the Pacific, was one of the more important, if enigmatic, of the many Native Americans who assisted the explorers on their epic trip.

Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.