Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
When George Washington Black, or Wash, an 11-year-old field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is selected to be the manservant of his master’s brother, he is immediately horrified. Christopher Wilde, however, turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist, much to his astonishment. Wash will soon be introduced to a world where a flying machine can take a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains can embrace a life of dignity and significance, and where two individuals who are completely separated from one another can start to view one another as human.
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
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However, when a man is slain and Wash is the target of a bounty, they are forced to leave everything behind and run away together. What binds Wash and Christopher together will eventually drive them apart, sending Wash ever farther across the world in pursuit of his true self. Washington Black is a narrative of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, of a world, broken and restored whole, spanning the Caribbean to the frigid Far North, London to Morocco.
1830 in Barbados. George Washington Black is a slave who toils in the sugarcane fields of Faith Plantation. When his first master passes away, he is 10 or eleven years old. His new master turns out to be far worse than the previous one, shattering all hopes of things becoming better. He hires goons from the dock to serve as overseers who are cruel and quick to kill or maim slaves for trivial transgressions. No better than the master himself. However, when the master’s younger brother shows in and hires Wash as his assistant, Wash’s situation immediately improves. Washington Black, Esi Edugyan’s chilling new book, focuses on the developing bond between these two guys.
Christopher Wilde, a tall, trim man in his 30s, has taken over as Wash’s new master. He goes by the name Titch. Titch is a scientist, just like his father. He also opposes slavery and despises the way his brother mistreats his slaves. “The statement “Negroes are God’s creatures too, with all due rights and freedoms,” is what Titch says Wash. A moral stain on us is slavery. This is the one thing that will stop white men from going to heaven.” Wash is shocked to see that Titch treats him like a human being, but he realizes that Titch is a racist despite his opposition to slavery from the older man’s strained language regarding racial relations. But when Titch learns that Wash is a talent for sketching, his status increases even more.
It transitions into a picaresque adventure story from this point on. He arrives in Morocco after travelling via the Caribbean, North America, the Arctic, and London. It is both an adventure and a love story. It also tells the tale of that time in the nineteenth century when Titch, the brother of the plantation owner, struggled with his sentiments towards their growing intimacy. Most of the remaining work is about living in London as a free man with a lady he loves and who loves him despite the fact that he was severely disfigured as a result of an accident. He eventually pulls out of it.
The boy finds a life of evasion that develops into love as he searches for independence from his racial bonds and the severe disfigurement from burns he sustained during his early association with his mentor, despite being terrified by events that challenge his impressionable imagination. It is a brilliant story of revelation, invention, and determination by a boy. Even if he eventually gains his freedom, the anguish he experienced during his early years of servitude never really leaves him.
