Washington Black

Stanley's book is an adventure story about an emancipated slave growing up in the 1830's. He is born a slave on a plantation in Barbados, balloons and sails to adventures in the Arctic, makes a life and avoids a bounty hunter in Nova Scotia, moves to London with a marine biologist and his daughter, and reunites with his mentor in the African desert. Characters include Wash, his mother Big Kit, his mentor Titch, plantation slave owner Erasmus, their cousin Philip, marine biologist Goff, and his companion daughter Tanna. There are issues of slavery, dependency, independence, pride, and the mental baggage from discrimination and abuse. I am not sure what I take away from the book and the ending..."What is the truth of any life, Titch?..."You cannot know the true nature of another's suffering." Nonetheless, in following the fanciful life of a disfigured ex-slave, the reader gets a picture of the racial prejudice that persists to this day from the many years of slavery.