Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Washington Black, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom vs. Captivity
Racism, Humanity, and Cruelty
Journeying and the Past
Family, Love, and Pain
Art, Science, and Curiosity
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.
Even though Benedikt and Theo don’t give Titch or Wash any trouble, their request not to disclose the ship’s name hints at the fact that this is not the last time that Wash and Titch’s past will continue to hound them, and that other people may question how they arrived in Virginia.
Themes
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.
As Wash looks around Norfolk, he recognizes that Black people do not get to enjoy the United States’s promise of freedom. Thus, the book emphasizes that racism exists all over the world and is used to justify dehumanizing treatment, even in a country that values freedom above all else.
Themes
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.
Here, Wash’s past proves inescapable, particularly because people can instantly identify him as someone who shouldn’t be alone, due to his race. This man’s racism, coupled with the society’s sanctioning of slavery, allows him to cruelly abuse Wash with no repercussions. This adds to Wash’s feeling of having to remain close to Titch despite the fact that he is technically free. Paradoxically, he has to be connected to Titch in order to maintain his freedom, suggesting that he may not be truly free at all.
Themes
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.
Titch and Wash continue to be plagued by other aspects of their past—particularly Philip’s death. Despite the fact that they are now quite far from Barbados, they both seem to recognize that this past trauma is something that will affect them for the rest of their lives (and already has, in shifting their path so drastically).
Themes
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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.
This description of Willard introduces another aspect of Wash’s past that will become a constant shadow on his life. For though he has escaped Faith Plantation and journeyed far away from it, he now realizes that this journey doesn’t necessarily mean that he can put his life as an enslaved person completely behind him.
Themes
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.
Here, Wash recognizes that his history as a slave will likely be inescapable for the rest of his life. In addition, his belief that he would die “slaughtered” like an animal and as a nobody—this extreme language of despair and degradation—suggests that Wash’s fear is both dehumanizing and holding him captive. This shows how Wash’s fear is almost as debilitating as the fear that he experienced on Faith Plantation.
Themes
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.
Storms frequently recur in the book to punctuate the emotional turmoil characters experience surrounding the past (like Wash and Titch escaping in the storm to highlight their desire to escape their pasts on Faith Plantation). Thus, Edgar’s mysterious statement foreshadows how they will be forced to confront their past again soon.
Themes
