Washington Black: Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Wash settles into his new routine: in the mornings, he and Titch examine the flora on the plantation and work through calculations for the Cloud-cutter. In the evening, Titch teaches Wash to read. Wash is amazed at Titch’s mind as Titch examines dirt, climbs trees, and observes new animals.

Titch never mistreats Wash, but this isn’t a kindness, as Wash knows at some point he will have to return to the cane fields’ brutality. Only once does Titch comment on the slaves’ abuse, when an overseer strikes a girl with a rusted prod. That evening, Wash hears Titch and Erasmus arguing about the incident.

At night, Titch also teaches Wash to write, but Wash starts to draw when Titch isn’t around. Each night, he burns the pages, worried that Titch will learn of his disobedience. But one day, Titch intrudes on Wash’s room just as he is about to burn a page, and Titch asks Wash not to waste the paper. He opens the page to see a butterfly they observed earlier in the day. Titch is astounded, saying he has never seen nature so faithfully rendered; he calls Wash a prodigy. From then on, Wash becomes their chief illustrator. Gradually, Wash also learns to read and understand more of the scientific concepts that Titch references.

One evening, Titch asks about the woman who served with him at the Great House, and Wash says that Big Kit is like a mother to him. Titch says that Wash must miss her, but Wash doesn’t respond. He wonders if he does miss her. He remembers her hand on his face in the darkness, how she always gave him the last scoop of her breakfast and he would eat it from her hand, and how she had seven scars from seven spears. He knows that one day she will no longer stand to be enslaved, and that she will kill many people before escaping with Wash to freedom.