Washington Black: Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Inside, Wash notices wet soil on Edgar’s palms, and a sour vinegar smell in the air. Edgar asks who Wash is, and Titch immediately gives Wash’s real name and origin, which unsettles Wash, given the bounty on Wash’s head. Edgar gives them a tour, and Titch thanks Edgar for letting them stay. Edgar asks Wash if Titch explained his peculiar habits, and Wash says that he knows Edgar studies the dead.

Studying Wash, Edgar says that he doesn’t care for childhood because it is a state of terrible vulnerability. Children rarely have good parents to help them grow up—he was an orphan himself. He says that sometimes, when there is a baptism, he looks upon the baby’s face and can’t stand it, knowing that such purity will never be kept intact.

Edgar then leaves to fetch bedding for his visitors, and Titch goes into the sexton’s office. There, they see a severed woman’s arm preserved in liquid in a washbasin. Wash asks if they have to stay, saying that Edgar is a madman and that he’d rather risk meeting Willard in the city than stay in the sexton’s home. Suddenly, Edgar returns to invite them for dinner, and Wash doesn’t know how much he heard.

At dinner, Edgar tells Titch that he knew they were coming—he had a sense during his morning prayers, saying that God infused the knowledge into his flesh. He notes that everyone’s bodies carry history, like Wash’s burns, or Titch’s scar across his mouth. Edgar says that it was caused between the ages of four and six, when a thick wire was pressed into his mouth and dragged back for two or three minutes before it was removed. Titch says vacantly that Edgar’s guess is remarkable.

Titch then explains their adventures: the storm, the Ave Maria, Philip’s death, and the bounty on Wash’s head—describing Willard’s soft voice, small stature, and blond hair to Edgar so he knows to look out for the man. Wash is stunned to hear Titch talk so openly about all of this. Edgar suggests that Titch tell his father about what’s happening so he can intervene, but Titch explains that his father passed away.

Hearing this, Edgar leaves the room and returns with an envelope—a letter from Titch’s father that references Titch having been nearly a year at Faith, meaning that the letter is very recent. Titch is bewildered, and Wash can see that the hope his father may be alive is almost too much for him. Titch tells Edgar that they can leave it until tomorrow, and Wash can see that Titch wants to believe in the impossible.

That evening, Titch falls promptly asleep, but Wash cannot. Both Edgar and the description of John Willard leave him unsettled. He can imagine Willard’s pale, expressionless face, and he drifts off before a sound startles him awake. He sees that Titch isn’t there, and Edgar enters in a wool coat and with a shovel. When Wash asks where Titch is, Edgar asks to follow him. Edgar leads him to the edge of an opened grave with a coffin in it. He says that Titch is down there, and seeing Wash’s frightened face, he assures Wash that it is a doorway before he climbs down and disappears.

Peering in, Wash sees that what he mistook for a coffin was actually a lid covering a ladder inside the grave. He drops down into the earth and descends the ladder, walking through a low, carved-out passage. At the end of the passage, Wash sees Titch, Edgar, and two runaway slaves. Wash knows what they are at once because of the way they tremble, but they are powerful men.

Titch introduces the runaways as Adam and Ezekiel, but the men say nothing. Titch says they are traveling north to Canada, which will make them free men. Titch says that it is a risky journey, but that it seems like a risk worth taking. Titch says that Wash should go north with the men to save his life—Titch plans to go to the Arctic to find out what happened to his father.

Wash realizes that Titch is saying that if Wash doesn’t go to Canada, he’ll likely die. Titch explains that so long as Wash is with him, Erasmus will be near and will not relent. Wash says if he is a free man, then it is his choice where he wants to go—even if that means hiding in the Arctic. Wash thinks in hindsight that, at this time, he thought he was making a brave choice—an act of loyalty to the only family he has. But in reality, he was just terrified at the thought of embarking on a perilous journey without Titch. Wash is resolved, and Titch is confused and pained but doesn’t say anything more.