Washington Black

Wash and Titch set out to summit Corvus Peak, a small mountain overlooking the plantation. As the climb grows steeper, Wash falls, and although he is briefly afraid that Titch will be angry with him for endangering the scientific equipment, Titch instead tends to his wounds, insisting that “it is your bones I am the more concerned about” (51). Titch tells Wash a story of a fall he suffered while climbing a mountain in the Andes.

When they reach the summit, Wash is amazed at the views, having never seen the plantation from such a vantage point. The natural beauty of the island stuns Wash, but its sharp juxtaposition with the horrors of slavery, the “jewel-like fields” littered “with broken teeth,” troubles him (54).

Titch decides to ask Erasmus for additional slaves to help carry the equipment for Cloud-cutter and assemble it on top of the mountain. Wash and Titch wait for Erasmus to meet with them at the house. When Erasmus does not appear, Titch decides to set out within the house to find him. Wandering through the corridors of the house, Wash and Titch come across Émilie, a pregnant 11-year-old old slave Wash used to know.