Washington Black is a child slave in Barbados when his master’s abolitionist brother chooses Wash to be his assistant, taking him away from the plantation and on a continent-spanning journey in search of love, loyalty, and freedom.

I could not put this book down. It reads as if a dear friend is unspooling the great story of their life to you, and only you. It is both meandering and urgent and the same time. I hardly took any notes in my reading journal because I was so caught up in the story.

I did find a few of the plot developments to be a bit of a stretch - running into exactly this person or that person is miraculously still alive. But the story was so engaging that I didn’t care. I needed to know what would happen next. I needed Wash to find closure. (Did he? Arguable.)

The running themes in this book - when is a Black man truly free? Can a white person ever be a real ally with no motive of personal advancement? - are still, I think, relevant today and part of what made WASHINGTON BLACK so powerful to me.