Tent of Many Voices: 11190503TMB

everyone welcome to the core of Discovery 2 tene voices if you folks could this program does get filled up because uh the program you're about to hear is very good if you don't mind there's a space uh SE in between you to sit close together if you can um just so we can get more people in here uh during the program I would appreciate that for those of you who are not familiar with us we are a traveling exhibit we've been traveling the Lou and Clark Trail since January year of 2003 and we finally made our way Westward to the Pacific Ocean and we'll be doing the return trip again next year back to St Louis like L Clark did 200 years ago well 200 years ago on the Expedition Captain Clark brought along his slave York and today York is here to tell his side of the story to be told for the first time so please help me welcome York we have been away from the eyes of the whole world almost 3 years thousands of miles away from civilization lifetimes away from the madness all them civilized men called slavery there was me a young Shoni woman named sag C Lewis C Clark and more than three dozen what I call volunteer Patriots now our mission seem simple enough all we had to do was cut a path through the Savage Northwest Territories all the way to the Pacific Ocean cross 4,000 mil of the highest mountains and fastest rivers in the americ ever seen before President Thomas Jefferson called us his core of Discovery and every day we live is the day we all prepared to die just on the word of the president we left St Louis a small army of men 3 years later we returned more like a Band of Brothers not one day went by that every man was tested past his limits only way you survive that kind of pain if every man willing to give what the one beside him need to stay alive well when had said in hard on us talk around Camp was if our luck didn't change we might be looking at starvation soon one day C Le called me up says y want you to go out there try your gift for hunting see what relief you can bring to us now I took that request more like an order gathered up my rifle and started out early only been gone by an hour so before I come across some fresh tracks look kind of like Bear Tracks to me now I don't know how many yall Tred bringing down a b before let me just tell you anything a man goes through with half a heart anything a man goes to with a whole mind either if you ask me but we was desperate I was determined to show Captain Lewis that his faith in me was well placed I thinkig you since the wind was blowing in my face been doing so all morning I might to follow these tracks out the ways without that obey but knowing was coming and if I was to catch up to him we'd have to see where was what so I follow some tracks out a mile or so come over to he and there was way off in the distance now that was a slow moving giant of a bear but by that time I'd already made up my mind and folks that know will tell you once your make up his mind there ain't nothing in this world set to change it so I found a good size tree laid out my shot and powder and I showed him a rifle I was adjusted for the long range of the shot about to pull up a little more to account for the wind been blowing in my face all morning about that time I realized the wind wasn't blowing in my face no more mostly kind of that old B on his nose and he let how to grow Sho the tree right beside me I knew my time for thinking was done boom that first shot fell between the shoulders gr on this come charging back in me CLA and face so I du back behind start pring the whole time I make my first mistake with rle right there I was pretty sure it was going to be my last mistake with that rifle it seemed like it took me about I to get that neck shot Lord the whole time I think the B must be beating right down the back of my neck I can't hear nothing cuz my heart is beating so fast and loud sound like Dr in my ears somehow I got that neck shot loaded I come around the tree I was pull the tricker before I even seted up boom that second try to hit him in the arm it didn't even slow him down and I knew there wasn't going to be a third shot so I L my rifle Ste out and smoke to the right side of the tree and I pulled my Axe and my knife and I waited for him see I waited cuz it don't make no sense a man trying to out run a wound and Angry Bear all that's going do get you cut up from behind way I see it my best chance maybe my only chance is to Stand My Ground and face him like a man so I waited for him said a quick prayer for my wife and family back to L I said a couple longer prayers for myself mind you then I waited boom boom about that time a do report come from my left side it turns out K Clark sent a couple boys to check on my success and I was so glad he did both shots po that old b square in the chest by that time it must have been nothing but pain and rage prob through that great big body of his that finally give out on him that's in 10 Paces Where I Stood waiting I took a second to gather the whis thank them boys for their good timing thank them for their better shooting and we set the skin that to clean as much of that bear as we could as fast as we could because with all that smoke and Noise with all that blood see we knew the Wolves was coming and that is the last place a man wants to be when the wolves come so we packed as much meat as we could carry and headed back to Camp arrived like conquering Heroes that night we feasted like kings and the laughter that have been abent from our fires for weeks slowly returned as hard cold men began to speak more farly of home of families their dreams and that night thousands of miles away from this civilization on hard Cold Ground I slept asleep of the day dreamed of my wife and family back in Louisville praying to God please W don't you just let me see see her face one more time these old eyes of mine before you decide to tear me out of this here World yours my name is York just y it is the name that my daddy carried before me I was born a slave no I was born to be the slave to be the property of another man and that is the shame my daddy carried before me but I have seen a world that few white men might ever dream of I have climbed to the top of snow capap mountains swarm Rivers so Swift that the Buffalo lose their foot watched whales Dan across the Cool Waters of two oceans and and I have walked among the people those Americans you call Indian have welcomed me into their land with open arms like some long lost brother and now I ask you hear of the things that I have seen so that when I am gone from here my name my voice my story does not die here with me for that is the way of the people that is the only thing of value I have left to give now the hardest part for me was always the not know him see many times before Master thought and I would go on adventures sometimes leaving home for months at a stress but always with the understanding we was coming back once we sell from New Orleans all the way around to New England took us 9 months at Sea soon as we touch ground we headed for home there's something different about this mission of Discovery well everybody talking about where we going and what we doing ain't nobody said a word about when we coming home and that concerned me that in the fact when nobody ever asked if I wanted to be part of the president's grave mission of Discovery if I wanted to lay my life down for this nation cuz I was just a slave this even funny thing is you know that if I were a free man I could not have volunteered to lay my life down for the president but but since I was just a slave nobody cared to ask but once we crossed over Missouri River but for me it was like crossing over the river Jordan found myself the other side a changed man to the Indians we met many had seen or at least heard of a white man before but they ain't never seen nobody like me start to give me names like black Indian or Big Medicine some even said that I was a gift straight from God you know I kind of like the way the Indians is thinking out there now we set our second win camp at the Manan Village called it Fort Mandan for meaga and her husband shano now I called him her husband but we all heard how this Indian girl was stole from her family when she was young how this old Frenchman shano bought her and trade from the adop Indians then decided to make her his wife and maybe that's why we so close me and her kind she's the only one out there know like I know what it means to be called the property of another man she was great with child give birth a little poy over the winter I sit outside the lodge waiting for him to come into the world when I hear him crying I told C clock I says C clock as long as that girl that baby with us you ain't got to word for whatever it takes to keep him safe I am prepared to give it even if it cost me my life and it show as I'm standing here today we all best believe I kept them safe now that winner is also with metal one ey chief of the H Indians now he refused to come and visit for a long time kind of the hadashi Indians had supported the British doing that Revolutionary War I guess we all know how that turned out for him anyway they say that word of the black man finally got the old one he couldn't take it no more had to come see what everybody been talking about so he come to the Fort demanding to see me I stood there in front of him and the first thing he did was to lick his thumb good and start to rub as hard as he could thinking he might take the black right off of man he said he was afraid it might be another trick by the white man and he had to be sure but when it didn't come off but that's when he start to look at me like the others like I'm somebody special and then I did what I always did with a new Chief or tribe I stripped my shirt down bare and I stood there before him with my arms out as far as I can hold them and I let two sometimes i' let three indian warriors get up in each hand and then I pick them up till all their feet was off the ground and let me tell you something well they Ain never seen a man that powerful before said that a man like that they said that this black man right here had to be touched by God and C CLK he was quick to agree with him he say surely you ought to respect a man with that kind of power he says but if you respect this man then you must respect the white man cuz before the white man come along this York and All His Kind they were nothing but Savage animals and the white man captured him and the white man tamed him the white man made him a slave if you're going to respect that kind of power then ain't you got to respect the man that can take that power and make it his slave and then sometimes c l will file the air gun once or twice to get everybody's attention back and that's when they start to explain to him how they're going to be part of a new tribe now called the United States how they going to have a new Chief and great father now we call the president they have this Duty protect the president's Warriors in your lands or suffer dearly for it now I don't know how many times I heard him tell one Chief or another tribe that story before I understood what it was they were saying what they was telling all them Indians is they going to be American not like y'all get to be American they was going to be more colored Americans and by my figuring well the kind of misery I call life ain't got room for more souls I wish I could have made myself so ferocious I could have scared them all away or at least one but I don't speak the languages besides who was I just y slave of Master William Clark so sometimes I just excuse myself from the lodge go out to the cold night air and you know what the little Indian children that they always follow right behind said they knew that a gift like this could stay with him forever so they want to be as close as they can until God decide to send them on his way and sometimes I'd ask God one day he might forgive this man what he couldn't do for all the men and children but we stayed with the man Dan the GE been flying North about 3 weeks when the ice started to break on the Lakes the captain agreed it's time for us to make our push for the Rock Mountain now the man that say any man got a hope of making them mountains need three things good supplies better horses and a man that knows the way they say the Shon Indians is the best place for all three so our mission changed before we can go to the mountain we got to find the sashon Indians we got to find the snake people for the next few weeks moving up Riv we had no contact and finally Captain Clark says maybe a small detailer then working Inland from the water have better luck so when he called the name of the three that would accompany him well my name was on that list because he knew when the step he could take that I wasn't prepared to follow so he walked 5 days almost 75 miles by the end our boots were tore through and our feet blooded had to wait for the others to catch up when they did well Captain Lewis drew a fresh detail of in and they proceeded on few days later we got word they finally met the Shon we was to get there fast as we could on kind there was a lot of concern a lot of agitation well this many armed white men so far in the Indian country was making everybody nervous but they told him was traving with an Indian girl and a baby was s me eat some fig no self-respect the man going to go to war when not with women and children but they say the word of black man already made himself up River they all just standing around waiting to see what everybody else been talking about so when I step out the boat everybody gather around me like the others then C Lewis called Chicago over to translate with words seeing she speak the language to all that hand talking JW are so good at now that's when we got our real surprise remember I told y'all this Indian girl was sto her family when she was young how this old Frenchman Sho bner decided to make it his wife well she say she don't remember much about being a child all but what she do remember is her big brother his name KEH away turns out when a man be Shashi called chief he carrying that same name without even trying to we found a way to bring a family back together now I don't know about where y'all come from but in my life whenever the change of R tear family apart ain't nothing sort of DME going to make it right this right here was a miracle God working well he give us a good reason to celebrate at least made it easy to trade for supplies and horses kamway was so pleased he give us his best tracker an old man he say know them Ms like nobody living now the old man's name was awful hard to pronounce c Le say is cuz civilized tongu were never meant to speak such Savage words just called the old man told me be done with it he said now I was with the Mind well I figure any man going to lead me through the mountains I'm looking at here and promise to keep me alive the other side well I figure a man like that ought to be called whatever he like to be called but nobody asked me what I was thinking and I wasn't up for volunteer so old Toby lead us into the bitter rot before we got in good we come across the Flathead Indians now they was like all the others except maybe more so when it come to me see the Flathead Indians tell us that an Atri when a man goes off to war and he is brave when a man goes to battle and he is strong The Greatest Warrior on the field they say that's the only man done earn the right to paint his skin black with the cold from the warfire so when you come back to the tribe everybody know without asking which man among them was The Greatest Warrior which man among them was the strongest which man was touched by God that day so the Flathead figure if God took it to mind to make a man black like that for good ain't that got to mean he great I sure like the way him Flathead was thinking out there but we only stayed with him a short to sh cuz we had this mountain now if I was to Never See Another Mountain until the day that I die it still be about 10 days too soon for me only thing I knew about the mountain we looking at here is ain't no way a man going to make it out the other side of life it's going to save us a brave market for the president's brave men of discovered and I wouldn't the only one thinking it but we couldn't turn back we had ourselves a mission from the president we either complete or we perish in the attempt so we pushed on to the bitter once we got in good a storm come out of nowhere dropped 10 hard inches of snow we lost our path started throwing packs and losing animals got so bad we had to put down two coats we shot them dead and we ate them whole as we were staring we were dying in those mountains finally C Clark says maybe the only chance we got to small detail and working way the other side of this mountain hard as they can gather whatever they can gather and coming back for the rest it's only chance he said now when he called out the name the five or six men he trust to compy him on this Mission will you best believe my name was on that list because he knew when it come to his life this mission of the president ain't nobody breathing he ever counted on more than me so we push hard against that mountain until they finally give us way in the other side and the next person they was kind enough to trade us for roots berries and sand we gathered everything we could carry and went back in for our friends now once we made it out the other side we stayed with the next first several weeks took a few days just to feel the bones and our bodies again we were that cold while we healed up we made new canoes now the Indians taught us how to fire boats out see always before if a man want a good canoe you take a tree trunk you put the axe to it and you call yourself a boat right but the envian taught us how to fight you take that trunk lay red hot Co across it and you burn away one layer at a time so when you're done you got a boat that run smooth in the water you got a boat ain't got no leaks you got a good craft the Indians taught us that and a lot more they kept us alive out there once we all healed up the captain say it's time for us to make our run for the ocean we left our horses and a few supplies with the next purse on the promise of returning and we proceeded on now the next few months it was much of the same thing new Chiefs new tribes tell them about the United States and the president C CL even named a group of islands after me called him York's eight Islands ain't that got a nice sound to it and then one day we come down the colia and the captain start to shout Ohan oh Ohan we had made it to the Pacific Ocean 4,000 miles of high mountains and fast Rivers all that way all of that suffering and pain and we only lost one man but he was a good man his name was Sergeant Charles Floyd come with us up out of Kentucky he grew up in Louisville but his family figur the god they know and love ain't never intend one man owning the soul of another man say they don't want no part of the state that make it the law so he move across the river to Indiana to to free country I was with s Floyd from die I did my best to keep him comfortable I cried with him I cried for all the men might never know one true God loving soul on account of him early passing this world and all but we made it to the ocean you see so we had our own reason to be celebrating now the first order of business at Station Camp was to set our last one of Fortune and the captains put it to a vote which Sal we settle one better for hunting the other good for building and supplies and every man went around saying one way or the other what he thought it ought to be and they got to me and everybody looking at me like I'm supposed to say something here now y'all know better than I do with the law of this nation say a negro man ain't got the right under the Constitution or under God to put his word up beside a white man C clock well C clock says it took took every man his blood and his sweat and his whole heart to get us this far on the most important mission for a nation for a president the way I see it means every man will earn the right to say where we go from here y it's time to put up your word it's time for you to vote so I voted right there beside all all them white men I put my word up and it counted for something and some say maybe that made me the first negro man this whole country to vot Legal beside a white man don't know if that's true but I know it felt good it sure felt right so we decided to settle the south side of the river and we set to build in Fort Clon now for the next few weeks I was putting my back into it some days I was holding trees as big around as my body all by myself I wanted to show all of them men how much I deserve that vote see I couldn't leave no room for questions C Clark as I was working so hard I fatigued my body was made up a few days but I think I made my point clear once we said Camp we start making regular Journeys down to the ocean sometimes just to bring water back to boil down for salt to have something to put on that awful food we've been eating for 2 years and some days we sit at that water for hours y'all ever seen the whale before well have you the way move across the water so smooth you can hardly see him there they don't bring that body all the way out and see just how great he is before he dive down and disappear all together I would sit at that water for hours watching them whs trying to see in my head where it be like if a man had that kind of Freedom if a man could run as far as he want around and nobody telling it's time to come back or you ain't got a right to be there just CU of the color of your skin you know I couldn't even see it but that kind of Freedom would look like one day C clar come through he says y' it's about time for us to put our mind back on civilization our mission for the president's complete our success will be going home soon now them words I've been waiting to hear since before we left St Louis me the only man out here away from the world got a wife and family back home able to give them up a dead by now I couldn't wait to get home one night Cam Lewis call us all around the fire say been think about what he might tell the president of these United States about his brave men of discovery about these men that sacrific more than any Patron ought to volunteer for his Nation about these Heroes that made a president's dream come alive and he start to call out the names one after the other like he might presented to the president and after every name that be a ho or Hollow cuz I started theid we was having ourselves a good time we was having so much fun that I don't think anybody even knows I mean besides me maybe they just didn't notice see after C Le finished calling out the name of those brave men sacrifice more than any Patriot volunteers Nation to we finish listing out the name of them Heroes make the president's Dream Come Alive well my name wasn't on that list you see and maybe that's when come clear to me what it is C CL been saying all this time he say YK it's time for us to put our mind back on civilization he said y it's time for us to put our mind back on walking three steps behind and not looking a white man in the eyes when you pass y it's time for you to put your mind back on not speaking let somebody tell you to speak it's time for you to put your mind back in change boy cuz cuz we going to civilization cuz we going home now folk ask all the time they say if you had so good out there with the Indians they treating you like God and all then why would a man come back to living like this well I had my reasons my wife my family see a man can't run away pretending he free if he ain't got the ones he Lov beside him cuz that ain't Freedom besides I figure all them children need to know what it was I seen they need to know there's a place that this country people see you coming they don't run you off to the corter they don't spit in your face instead they ask you to come and to sit down right beside them they ask you to eat the food off of their plate because it means they have been touched by God I figure if I didn't tell them they might never know that they was more than slaves so I had to come back now the truth be told I fig it's only a matter of time us coming back to civilization me gaining my own Freedom before we left on this mission for the president Master Clark freed Ben went on and on about see as how servitude for life is against God's Will and against the natural order of mankind I'm giving men his freedom for faithful service for Ben a good boy you been with us a while but not like me I doing Master Clock my whole life more than 30 years by his side without fail I fig after the last three years we didn't had all he got to do is make it home and he going to make me a free man so I could not wait to come back starting back up River we was making such good time like we was walking on water if we try we get too we trade more horses for both the faster we go by the time we got back to the next person C order us trade everything we don't need to survive he said trade it for root I don't know if y'all ever had root before well it ain't the best tasting thing in the world the truth is it is the worst thing I have ever put in my mouth and that said a lot after the three years out there dog and horse included but we know that R will keep a man alive all we had to do was survive this in Mountain we was going home C L he cut the buttons off his uniform and give them to me to trade all told I come back with 20 bushes of fruit we had more than any man ever want to eat his whole life and once we cleared that mountain we started back for home past sh and the the M the the Sue all the way back into civilization we got to St Louis look like a parade started up folk line the road as far as I could see and most of to give us up a dead years ago for a few days they stopped me on the street asked me about the president's mission of discovery about the Indians we met the great things we see I went back to my duties I tried to smile and to not look a white man in the eyes when I passed him on the street but it was hard to lower my head again and finally it was time to go on home when I got to Lille I sent the word out when the word day through and all the chores was done everybody's the around and if it take all night best be prepared to sit all night I tell them everything I can remember about the last 3 years and I told them everything now most of them they couldn't even believe but I told them anyway and then it was time to go on to Washington report from the presid he give every man 320 Acres of good farmland for his hard work every man double duty pay in gold coin for a sacrifice every man the appreciation of an entire nation for making the president's Dream Live I was in the slave cours waiting to be called before the president but that that call never came for long it was time to go on home Master Clock say he been promoted to General Chief Indian agent for the the entire nation I fig he deserved it he's a good soldier like his brothers before but he said to carry out his new duties he was going to be moving his house to St Louis permanent say can't see himself going about new service in a Strange Land without his most prized possession without his most favorite slave you're right there beside him so I asked him I said Master Clark if we move to St Louis for good then then what about my wife what about family and he asked me he said what about him I can give you a lawful order he says not expect you to follow without question it's time for you to be done with that wife y she said I order you to be done with that wife there are plenty of slaves in St Louis I'll find you a new wife there now I couldn't believe them words coming out of his mouth like that see the whole time we out there away from the world he going on and on about Miss Julia Hancock of Virginia how he can't wait to get back to this civilization and take her hand can't see itself growing old without the woman he loves standing right there beside him so I thought that meant he knew how a man needs somebody he can run home to when the world been standing on his back all day a shoulder that he can cry it if he got to somebody tell him long as you know somebody love you tomorrow got to be better than today I thought he knew what it was for a man to give his heart away here he tell me he ordered me to be done with my wife like she some stray dog I found on the side of the road so we packed the house Master Clock went by boat and I left the slaves and wagons overline to St Louis when we got there I come up with a plan I went to Master Clock I says Master Clark seems to me you got lots of business interest still attend to in Louisville re you need somebody you can trust to handle all that see as I took care of your business most of our life together figure I'm the right man for the job you can send me back to Louisville I'll take care of your business and be close to my wife and family sound like a good plan he said he can see what I was getting that he wasn't going to stand for much of that kind of talk but he allowed me back to Louis for four or five weeks to finish up his business and to sell his boat for St Louis when you return he says I expect you to be done with that wife of yours set to get back to your duties as an obedient slave in my house four or 5 weeks for a man to throw his heart away well about 5 months later he sent word to his brother I must have misunderstood his orders cuz I've been gone four months too long but some yall know about that when a lot of misunderstanding see sometime a man got to do what's right by him instead of what another man tell but I knew if I didn't sell that boat for St Louis directly that' be the devil to pain Master CL thre before to show me what real slavery is like he said he sell Me Down New Orleans they say a man find himself a slave down New Orleans he ain't never going to see nothing he love again the rest of his short painful life they got ways down there of crushing a man's Soul then they grind his bones into the dirt I done seen it you don't want to find yourself a slave down new ORS so I had to sell that boat for St Louis now before I push off my wife come down the water and see me she say the man she call M well he decided to move his house further south in the slave country she said well if you plan on selling that that boat back to St Louis well I reckon you best turn on around here y'all turn around here now okay one last long look at you why cuz the chances is he ain't never going to lay lies on again now them few words them few words almost dead but the hardest three years of my whole life could not do almost stop my heart beating dead in this test M but I knew if I did not sell I was going to lose everything I ever loved I didn't have a choice here slaves don't have choices so I had to sell for St Louis but when I got home I made up my mind to see and folks to know tell you and said once you don't make up his mind there ain't nothing in this world set to change it so I went back to master CL said Master CL since we've been together our whole life more than 30 years by your side we was little boys we used to wrest together hunt fish ride horses all day long up and down the rivers when we was older well I went about my duties with respect you ain't never have to question my loyalty to you or your kid and when you fell down I picked you up and when you were sick I made you better and if somebody was to threaten your life don't you know that I would kill a man with my bare hands or I would lay my own life down just to see you safe and for three years me and you we stood side by side against the whole world that up there and I did get one acre good farmland for it and nobody dropped the gold cord into my pocket and President Jefferson he don't even know my name Master CL Billy way I see it you're the onlyest man in the whole world got the power to give me what I need most right now you can make me a free man Billy you can save my family I thought Master F going to hurt himself count of how hard he was laughing what it was I had to say he said he thought it funny me believ in any service I my whole life more than 30 years by his side was more than what a slave does for his rightful Master under God said if he was to ever see such immense surface he'd be the man to rewarded but it ain't come yet besides he said you much too valuable piece of property for a man to just let go like that that's what he said much too valuable a piece of property for a man to just let go if any was to ever ask me what my thoughts was of Master William Clark of the Clark family i' been quick to say that he was honest but he was fa in the right company I would I would have called him my friend for life right there he made it clear more than 30 years almost every day of his life he ain't never looked into this Brown face of mine and seen nothing but a slave so I fig if it's about my value well I can do something there started to agitate doing things just enough wrong he can see it was by my choice so he knew what I was getting that it wasn't going to stand for much but mind you I tried to smile and to not look a white man in the eyes when I pass but I couldn't lower my head again so Master Clark had me strapped to the poster he paid a man good money to beat me until I could not see and after I healed up I tried not speaking let somebody tell me it's my time but I couldn't hold my tongue so Master Clock had me locked in the jail house 30 days that beat I took ain't nothing compared to how they break you in the jail house I guess somewhere in all that M CL figure whatever broke in me wasn't getting fixed fast enough so he decided to go on and send me home to L now I don't know what the letter read he sent on to his brother I can't read but I can guess figure that letter says that it's time for y'all to know what it is to have a severe Master know how good his life have been till now what it is to be a real slave I think that's what the letter says cuz that's the lesson his brother said to teaching me they sold me out to man dressed me in rags threw me in the field and he St the big old bull plot across my back and for 2 years that old man tried to grind my bones into the dirt and for 2 years I ain't heard one word from Master Clark and finally news come through his nephew he decided to go and give me my freedom only been 10 or 11 years now since we we come back on this Mission and most dayses don't ever see Freedom especially in my age but everything I'm fighting to be a free man for is out of my hands my wife my whole family is gone and how I'm free and I'm all by myself in the world so Master PA give me a wagon some horses set me the drives business running Freight from Richmond Kentucky to Nashville Tennessee folk ask all the time what sense it make a free man ride headlong to the slave South trying to do business well I had my reasons F somewhere along them roads somebody seen or heard tell that family that's holding my wife if this business of M was worth anything a man might have enough gold in his pocket one day to buy his hard back but there things they don't tell you about the slave South how they got these laws that say a free man ain't got the right associate with slaves kind he might be telling that slave what it's like to be free they might get a mind they want some of the same business wasn't too good I guess it didn't make sense white man hire somebody like me it didn't look good for the slaves to see that kind of thing going on those that did hire didn't always pay cuz the law say negro man ain't got the right and the Constitution or God to go into court and swear out against the white man even if his life depend on it my hores started dying I think they was being poison got so bad I had to hire myself in a hard nebor a whole year but I'm done with it now and I ain't never going back see I know some things now I know now that I ain't never going to see my life again except every night when I Clos my eyes she right there telling me long as you know somebody love you y'all but the M got to be better than the day but I not ready to die yet and I know now that a man can't live like this so I come up with another plan I figure if I can make it up to the Missouri and out to Indian country things would be different somewhere out there maybe a man could walk down the road people ask him to stop a while but children ask you to throw him into the air and catch him with the strong hands cuz it means they have been touched by God maybe somewhere out there a man could live a man could die like a man and I a to find that place or I expect to perish in the attempt now before I go I was hoping maybe y'all could do me a favor if you was of the Mind way I see it one day somebody might ask you what you know of Captain Lewis and Captain Clark of the president's Brave mission of Discovery and you could tell them you could tell them that you know a man with skin as dark as night that you know a black man who walked stride for stride who suffered pain for pain with the greatest heroes this nation might ever know you tell them that my name is your just your it is the name that my daddy came marri before me and although I was born into change you tell them that I am not now tell them that I have never been the property of another man and I ask you this so that when I am gone from here my voice this story does not die here with me but that is the way of the people sad truth is these two words they are the only things of value that I have left to give son has set my friends and now my journey must begin God's me the S Davis ladies and gentlemen he will be speaking again tomorrow at 1:00 if you have friends or family that think e e e