Washington Black

Washington Black is the third novel by Canadian author Esi Edugyan. The novel was published in 2018 by Knopf Publishers and is a bildungsroman, chronicling the early life of the title character, George Washington "Wash" Black.

Born into slavery on a Barbados plantation, Washington escapes the island alongside Christopher "Titch" Wilde, the younger brother of Wash's owner, Erasmus Wilde. Titch and Wash escape via an early flying machine. The machine's capsize in a sudden storm does not stop Wash and Titch from eventually making their way to the Arctic. Though Wash and Titch are successful in their goal of finding Titch's father in the Arctic, Wash must make his own way from there. He spends some time living in Nova Scotia, where he develops his talents as a scientific illustrator, begins a collaboration with a renowned biologist, and falls in love, before journeying to London, Amsterdam, and eventually Marrakesh in the pursuit of understanding his origins and identity.

Plot

Washington Black is written in the third person and focuses on the title character. George Washington "Wash" Black was born into slavery on Faith Plantation in Barbados. Originally owned by Richard Black, the plantation passed into the hands of his nephew, Erasmus Wilde, upon Black's death. Work on Faith is cruel and difficult, and Wilde is a harsh, violent master, but Wash is watched over by Big Kit, a powerful, spiritual woman who longingly remembers the life she led in Dahomey before she was enslaved and brought to the Americas.

Everything changes for Wash when Erasmus Wilde's younger brother, Christopher "Titch" Wilde comes to visit Faith. Titch, who considers himself a scientist and admires his scientist father above all else, has come to Faith to test his prototype hot air balloon, the Cloud Cutter. Noticing Wash one day, Titch asks his brother to lend him Wash as his personal manservant, and Wilde concedes.

Working for Titch, Wash’s world begins to shift. Not only is he relieved of his duties in the field, Titch notices that Wash is a talented artist and begins to train him as scientific illustrator. Titch also begins to teach Wash to read, involves him in his work on the Cloud Cutter, and allows Wash significant personal freedom, suggesting that he does not share his brother’s views on slavery. While Wash misses Big Kit, he is enraptured by his new life with Titch.

The differences between the Wilde brothers come to a head when their cousin Philip comes to Faith, bearing to the brothers the news of their father’s death. Shortly after making this announcement, some months after his arrival in Barbados, Philip kills himself. Wash is the only witness. He and Titch escape via the Cloud Cutter, which they have been working on for months atop a nearby peak. In an early test of the machine, Wash was caught in an unexpected conflagration and badly scarred, and this second flight is brought down by a sudden storm, crashing into a merchant ship captained by the German Benedikt Kinast and his twin brother, a surgeon named Theo Kinast. The two agree to take Titch and Wash to Virginia, where they see a sign advertising an enormous bounty for Wash, along with the name of the notorious slave catcher out to pursue him, on their way to meet with a morbid abolitionist friend of Titch’s, Edgar Farrow. Farrow reveals that he has recently had a letter from Titch’s father, suggesting to him that Mister Wilde is not actually dead. Titch decides to go in search of his father, who is researching in the Arctic. Wash decides to accompany Titch.

After a long journey, Titch and Wash arrive in the Arctic, and are led to a rugged camp (where Mister Wilde is indeed living and working) by Peter House, Mister Wilde’s devoted assistant who is deaf and speaks in sign language. Complex emotions arise in Titch following this reunion with his father, which culminate in his walking into a blizzard, leaving Wash alone. Shortly after Titch’s disappearance, Mister Wilde dies. Wash, not yet sixteen years old, makes his way to Nova Scotia, where he passes a depressive and contemplative time alone, supporting himself, processing his past, and fearing the potential arrival of Mr. Willard, the slave catcher.

Returning to drawing and studying marine life after this period of depression, Wash meets Tanna Goff, a fellow aspiring illustrator and the daughter of renowned marine biologist G.M. Goff. Wash works with Goff and Tanna in collecting and illustrating marine specimens, and has the novel idea for creating an aquarium, rather than an exhibition of preserved but ultimately dead species. Tanna and Wash strike up a tenuous and frustrated flirtation, eventually having sex after Wash is attacked by (and fends off) Mr. Willard and goes to Tanna for help.

Getting word that Titch may have in fact survived his self-destructive walk into the Arctic blizzard, Wash journeys to London with Tanna and Goff. The three begin work on their aquarium, but Wash and Tanna simultaneously follow the breadcrumbs of Wash’s past life. The two visit Titch’s mother in her country manor, but are not warmly received. Going to a London abolitionist society, where Mrs. Wilde has informed them all the papers from Faith plantation are archived, Wash discovers that Big Kit was in fact his mother. He and Tanna also learn that Titch may have recently visited his father’s old associate Peter (they learn that Peter’s “House” is correctly spelled “Haas”) in Amsterdam. After witnessing the hanging of the slave catcher Mr. Willard in London, the two travel to Amsterdam, only to learn that Titch has purportedly gone to Marrakesh, Morocco. Though frustrated by the seemingly endless journey, Tanna accompanies Wash to Morocco.

In the deserts outside of Marrakesh, Wash finds Titch living alone with a young Moroccan boy, who is about the age Wash was when he and Titch met. Wash confronts Titch about their time together, Titch’s morality, and Titch’s abandonment of Wash. A desert storm comes down upon the camp and, having received no satisfactory answer from Titch, the book ends with Wash beginning to walk into the swirling sand.

Reception

Washington Black received positive early reviews. Trade journals Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and Library Journal all gave the book starred reviews. The New York Times Book Review praised the novel for "complicat[ing] the historical narrative by focusing on one unique and self-led figure.". The New Yorker praises both the novel's success as historical fiction and at taking on grand themes such as love and freedom, writing "That striving—the delicate, indomitable, and often doomed power of human love—haunts "Washington Black." It burns in the black sea of history like the jellyfish in the Nova Scotia bay, no more than a collection of wisps in the darkness, but a glory all the same, however much it stings."