Biography of York

York and William Clark had always been great friends. But when York was about thirteen (and William about fourteen) York became the "personal" slave of Clark, given to Clark by his father.

York's mother's name was Rose and his father's name was Old York. York was taught to always be obedient and good to his master so that he would never be separated from his family. (which the owner could do anytime they wanted).

York was the black slave of William Clark. York had a wife that he had to leave when he departed on the expedition. He had no way to communicate with her while on the expedition. But he was at one point allowed to send her a buffalo robe. She too was a slave, but of the neighbors of Clark. When returning from the expedition York was overjoyed to see her.

On the expedition the traveling group of people were helped by many Indians. They were amazed with York because of his large size and big muscles and especially his dark skin. The Indians thought it was amazing that he was born with such dark skin because the Indians would cover themselves with charcoal sometimes during war to make themselves look more fierce.

When York returned from the expedition he asked to become a free black man because he had helped so much on the expedition. Sadly enough Clark said no. Also when creating a list of those who had helped on the expedition Clark did not include any of the Indians (such as Sacajawea and her child) or York. Those who were included got a large amount of money and land. Even if Clark had included York, unfortunately he wouldn't have received anything since black people weren't allowed to own land or money.

Reflection:

I decided to do a character profile on York, because I thought it would be interesting to learn about the man that wasn't allowed to be counted as part of the journey just for being black. I think that for a slave York had a very interesting life and I enjoyed learning more about him. Also I didn't have trouble to write this character profile, except for when I had to make it sound less like a biography. So instead I just turned turned it into a biography.