YORK'S JOURNAL tells the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition from the point of view of the only slave to accompany the Corps of Discovery. When the story begins, William Clark's servant has secretly learned to read and write. After Clark announces he will take his servant into the wilderness, York decides to keep a journal, as President Thomas Jefferson has urged other members of the Expedition to do. His journal becomes a means of self-discovery, intensifying his need to be free. York's friendships and love affairs with Native Americans along the way reveal he can find a home in the wilderness, and he builds from his journal a full account of his personal quest, as well as an ironic slave narrative of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.