Hasan Davis portrayed Clark's slave York. What an outstanding performance! His discussion will help provide a different prospective to Black History Month in my third grade classroom this year. York was born a slave and as a young man went on the expedition without being asked or paid. The thirty other men went knowing that there was a grave possibility that they wouldn't return but York wasn't given that choice. As they went further west into the unknown York was given more and more freedom, once even allowed to vote - something never allowed a slave. In Hasan's portrayal the listener understands York's feeling of complete freedom for the first time in his life as well as frustration when they arrive back in Saint Louis and he becomes a slave once again. The other men were given 360 acres of farm land for the two year trek. York, who had worked side by side and gone step by step with the other men, became a slave once again.
Just a week later I was at Fort Clatsop where Lewis and Clark spent their winter on the Pacific Ocean before returning to St. Louis.
|The forest between the fort and ocean...|