Required REading 

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan follows George Washington “Wash” Black, an eleven-year-old boy born into slavery on a Barbados sugar plantation in the 1830s. When he is chosen to serve as assistant to his owner’s eccentric brother, Christopher “Titch” Wilde, Wash’s talent for drawing and scientific thinking sets him on an unexpected path. After a violent incident forces them to flee, Wash escapes across continents—from the Caribbean to the Arctic and beyond—traveling by hot-air balloon and ship while grappling with freedom, loyalty, abandonment, and the lasting psychological scars of enslavement. As he grows into adulthood, Wash must confront who he is beyond the label of property and decide what kind of life—and identity—he will claim for himself.