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Peter House/Peter Haas
William an enslaved man on Faith Plantation who commits suicide towards the beginning of the book. Many of the enslaved people on the plantation, including Big Kit, believe that committing suicide would allow them to be reborn in their homelands. Wanting to make an example of William and prevent others from committing suicide, Erasmus saws off the man’s head after his death, arguing that the enslaved people can’t be reborn without a head.
William Quotes in Washington Black
The Washington Black quotes below are all either spoken by William or refer to William. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1, Chapter 4 Quotes
We had lived in blood for years, my entire life. But something about that evening—the gleaming beauty of the master’s house, the refinements, the lazy elegance—made me feel a profound, unsettling sense of despair. It was not only William’s mutilation that day, knowing his head stared out over the fields even now, in the darkness. What I felt at that moment, though I then lacked the language for it, was the raw, violent injustice of it all.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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William Character Timeline in Washington Black
The timeline below shows where the character William appears in Washington Black. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 2
One day, when a boy named William hangs himself in the laundry room, Erasmus gathers the slaves together. Everyone is frightened as...
(full context)
Part 1, Chapter 4
Wash meets Titch for the first time the night of William’s desecration, when Immanuel and Émilie (slaves who work in the Great House) summon Big Kit...
(full context)
...of blood—she was worried he would burn them alive for getting to Dahomey. Thinking about William’s mutilation and the extravagant house, Wash is struck by the injustice of their lives—though he...
(full context)
