With few exceptions, the historic footprints of African Individuals who trod Clark County within the early days are difficult to trace. By way of the Corps of Discovery’s journals, we learn about York. He’s talked about all through the journals but remained William Clark’s slave even after the journey. He was seemingly the primary African American to set foot regionally, even perhaps close to the present-day Capt. William Clark Park at Cottonwood Seashore in Washougal.
One notable exception is James Douglas (1803-1877). Douglas was a longtime Hudson’s Bay Firm worker in Vancouver who handed for white. The son of a white plantation proprietor and a Creole mom, Douglas was chosen by George Simpson, the corporate’s governor, to arrange its new headquarters in Canada. He was so profitable he turned often called the “father of British Columbia.” Queen Victoria knighted him in 1863 for his service.
Regardless of African Individuals being a tiny demographic of the Pacific Northwest by way of the Civil Conflict, the realm debated slavery vigorously. Oregon reacted with anti-Black exclusion legal guidelines in 1844 and 1849. However not Washington Territory. Largely, there wasn’t a necessity. (Nevertheless, the territorial legislature handed a Chinese language Exclusion Act in 1882.) The US Land Donation Act of 1853 was a whites-only alternative. It dismissed African American land possession, leaving solely subservient labor open to them.
Nonetheless, partial footprints of some native African Individuals are seen. The 1850 census lists 49-year-old Monimia Travers as a member of Capt. Llewellyn Jones’ family. Jones bought her as a slave earlier than coming West with the Mounted Rifles in 1849. To this point, no researcher has found a point out of Travers in accounts of the march. The captain launched her in 1851, saying, “I have this day given her freedom unconditionally.” Sadly, she seems in no native census later. Curiously, the census listed her birthplace as New York, which abolished slavery in 1827.
In April 1899, the USS Undine docked on the Vancouver wharf, and a crowd gathered to look at the twenty fourth Infantry Regiment, Firm B, Buffalo Troopers disembark. One should wonder if future Medal of Honor winner Moses Williams was amongst these watching earlier than he died that August. The twenty fourth spent 13 months on the Vancouver Barracks, turning into the realm’s largest focus of African Individuals till World Conflict II.
Army information present us with particulars in regards to the Buffalo Troopers stationed right here. A number of, like Cpl. Mack Stanfield, Sgt. Charles W. Grayson, Sgt. Ezekiel H. Hill and Sgt. Richard Williams served on the barracks and different navy posts all through the American West. The Military additionally deployed them abroad, combating within the Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars. Williams gained a particular commendation for bravery through the Battle of San Juan Hill.