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Part 1, Chapter 1
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
Wash flashes back to when he is five years old, when the quarters-woman first sends him to live with Big Kit. He immediately loves and fears her. Big Kit towers over everyone and protects Wash from being spat on and bitten and struck by the other slaves—usually by fiercely attacking the others herself. Some nights she murmurs in her sleep in her native language, but the stories she tells Wash about her old life change every day. Wash adores Big Kit, as well as her songs and stories, because she is a witness to a free world that he has never known.
As Wash describes how Big Kit came to be his mother figure, he makes it clear that she is fiercely protective over him, but she also has the capacity to hurt him as well, demonstrating the complex family dynamics at play between them. Wash also loves her because of what she represents: a connection to freedom, which Wash himself has never experienced. This passage touches on one key additional point: the fact that slavery has so dehumanized the enslaved people that they even treat each other badly (biting and spitting on Wash) in order to survive.
Themes
During Erasmus’s second week at the plantation, he dismisses the overseers and replaces them with rough men—usually ex-slavers or ex-soldiers. Soon the maiming begins. The overseers cut slaves’ tongues out, force a girl to eat from a full chamber pot she didn’t clean thoroughly, and burn a slave alive for trying to run away. Other killings follow—they hang, whip, and shoot the slaves. Witnessing these deaths, Wash cries at night, but Big Kit does not.
These events illustrate how dehumanizing and cruel slavery is both in general and specifically on the plantation—particularly after Erasmus arrives and brings in overseers who share his viewpoint. He views the enslaved people as completely disposable, allowing him to justify his abusive and murderous treatment towards them. This cruelty clearly traumatizes Wash, leaving an impression on him not only now but throughout his life as he narrates from the future.
Themes
To Big Kit, death is a door, and she does not fear it. She explains to Wash that in her faith, the dead are reborn in their homelands to walk free. One night in their hut, Big Kit tells Wash that she wants to kill herself and him—she will do it quickly, so it doesn’t hurt. She tells him that he will be reborn in his homeland, but Wash is hesitant—he doesn’t think he has a homeland. She assures him firmly that he will come with her to Dahomey, where he can be free. He asks her what it’s like to be free, and she says that a person can do whatever they want when they’re free—they can go anywhere and do anything. Wash wonders what this kind of autonomy would be like.
Here the book illustrates how emotionally difficult physical captivity can be—so much so that Big Kit and Wash are willing to die in order to find greater freedom. This exchange also hints at one of Wash’s primary internal struggles, as he tries to reconcile his past origins (being from Dahomey) while also feeling as though he doesn’t belong anywhere.
Themes
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Days pass, and the atmosphere at the plantation grows harsher, but Big Kit doesn’t kill Wash yet. She tells him that it has to be done under a certain phase of the moon, with the right words, and she instructs him not to speak of their intentions. But soon, other suicides begin, as other slaves believe that they will be reincarnated as well. One man cuts his own throat with an axe; another punctures his wrists.
The subsequent suicides on the plantation prove not only that Wash and Big Kit feel that slavery is emotionally untenable, but also that the other enslaved people similarly feel that the overseers’ dehumanizing torture is not worth living through.
Themes
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One day, when a boy named William hangs himself in the laundry room, Erasmus gathers the slaves together. Everyone is frightened as Erasmus studies them. He dumps William’s body onto the ground, explaining that he knows many of the slaves believe that they will be reborn in their homelands when they die. Wilde then takes out a large knife and saws off William’s head, driving it onto a post. Erasmus says that no man can be reborn without a head, and he will do this to every person who commits suicide. Looking up at Big Kit, Wash sees the despair in her eyes.
This moment continues to illustrate Erasmus’s inhumane treatment towards the enslaved people; he desecrates William’s body after his death and also disrespects the enslaved people’s cultural beliefs. This represents yet another restriction on the enslaved people’s lives, as they can’t even find freedom in death. They are completely captive, and Big Kit’s despair acknowledges how damaging it is to have no control over one’s own life or death.
Themes
