Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Washington Black, or “Wash,” an 11-year-old field slave in Barbados, is selected to be the personal assistant to Titch, an explorer, inventor, naturalist, and abolitionist. Titch teaches Wash to read, and encourages his powers of observation and talent for illustration. A death on the plantation forces Titch and Wash to flee, thus beginning Wash’s journey from slave to free man. This is an epic story spanning the Caribbean, the Arctic, England, and Africa that deftly explores what it means to be humans and what it means to be free.