Washington Black
Critique • Quotes
First editionFirst publication
2018
Literature form
Novel
Genres
Literary, historical
Writing language
English
Author's country
Canada
Length
Approx. 130,000 words
Notable lines
I must have been ten, eleven years old—I cannot say for certain—when my first master died.
— First line
I became a boy without identity, a walking shadow, and with each new month I fell deeper into strangeness. For there could be no belonging for a creature such as myself, anywhere: a disfigured black boy with a scientific turn of mind and a talent on canvas, running, always running, from the dimmest of shadows.
"I understood there are many ways of being in the the world, that to privilege one set of beliefs over another was to lose something. Everything is bizarre, and everything has value. Or, if not value, at least merits investigation."
I had long seen science as the great equalizer. No matter one's race, or sex, or faith—there were facts in the world waiting to be discovered. How little thought I'd given to the ways in which it might be corrupted.
"You were more concerned that slavery should be a moral stain upon white men than by the actual damage it wreaks on black men."
I stepped out onto the threshold, the sand stinging me, blinding my eyes. Behind me I thought I heard Tanna call my name, but I did not turn, could not take my gaze from the orange blur of the horizon. I gripped my arms about myself, went a few steps forward. The wind across my forehead was like a living thing.
— Last lines
Critique • Quotes
