Washington Black: Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

The docks at Norfolk stink of tobacco, mud, and unwashed deck hands, but it’s nevertheless a grand city. Benedikt and Theo don’t give Titch and Wash any trouble as they leave, only asking that they be discreet and not mention their names or the ship’s name when people ask how they arrived in Virginia.

On the dock, Wash looks in amazement as men walk freely, but not all men have the same freedom—not the people who look like Wash. He and Titch walk through the crowd with a bundle of sailor’s clothes, salted ham, and a few coins that Benedikt gave them. Titch goes to inquire at a post office about his friend’s address, leaving Wash on a street corner.

When a nearby shop door opens, Wash is struck by the smell of his old life: sugar. He presses his face against the shop window, but someone strikes him hard, telling him to get his face out of the shop window. Frightened, Wash steps back, and the man asks if he’s a runaway. The man starts to punch him in the chest, until Titch comes out and stops the man. The man apologizes, saying that he thought Wash was a runaway. Titch takes Wash by the arm and they walk away.

Titch acquires directions to his friend’s address—the man, Edgar Farrow, is the acting sexton of St. John’s parish, which is 10 miles west. Titch and Wash walk together, and Titch says that the man is his father’s old associate. But Titch warns Wash that in addition to being a man of the church, Edgar is a scholar of human decay; he examines the way that human flesh rots. Wash walks uneasily, and Titch correctly guesses that he is thinking of Philip.

Suddenly, Titch stops and takes out a piece of paper he saw in the post office. It advertises a reward of 1,000 pounds for Wash, giving a description of him and of Titch. It is signed John Willard, acting agent for Erasmus Wilde of Faith Plantation. Wash is shocked, and Titch says that he remembers Willard—a guest of Erasmus’s on occasion, who enjoyed being a transnational bounty hunter. Titch says the man has done terrible things, and is never held to account. He’s surprised that Erasmus would stoop so low as to offer 1,000 pounds as a reward, but he knows that this is only to get to Titch.

Wash asks if Titch could take him to England or if he could pay the bounty himself, but Titch knows that neither of those strategies will work. Then, a driver passes in a cart, offering them a lift. As they ride, Wash is despondent, realizing how easily he got used to the idea that he could outrun death or leave misery behind. But he is just a Black boy, with no future in front of him, and no mercy behind him. He would die as a nobody, hunted down and slaughtered.

Soon Wash and Titch arrive at St. John’s, and when Edgar answers the door, Titch introduces himself, saying that he is James Wilde’s son. Edgar straightens and asks where Titch’s Cloud-cutter is. Titch explains their experience with the storm, which landed them in Virginia. Edgar invites them in, saying mysteriously that it is storm season, and strangeness will soon blow in.