An enterprising boy escapes slavery to experience an adventure-filled life in Washington Black
Esi Edugyan’s work resonates. By envisioning a 1960s-era Ghanaian civil servant who birthed an African-American settlement in Alberta’s Amber Valley after he inherited land in her debut novel The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, Edugyan paved the way for the breadth of humanity she would go on to cover in her later works.
Fourteen years later, the Calgary native’s literary world expanded beyond that of her own home province as the epic tale led from Barbados to Nova Scotia and along the Underground Railroad to a new life. Hailed by Kirkus Reviews as “a thoughtful, boldly imagined ripsnorter that broadens inventive possibilities for the antebellum novel,” Washington Black — the name of the character and his story — now becomes a television series.
The story of George Washington Black’s life is a harrowing one, described by the Library Journal as “a life so circumscribed that he’s not even allowed to end it.”
Beginning in 1830s Barbados, viewers are introduced to their protagonist Washington Black (Ernest Kingsley Junior, War of the Worlds), also known simply as “Wash,” an 11-year-old boy born and raised on a sugar plantation and quite literally dying for freedom at his young age.
When he meets the estate owner’s nephew, Christopher “Titch” Wilde (Lucifer’s Tom Ellis), a sudden traumatic incident forces Wash to flee his imposed routine of hard labour and he seeks both adventure and education by way of his new connections. For a decade, Wash accepts all the luck, generosity and kindness bestowed upon him, but even years later as he looks back upon the events of his life, Wash wonders why, of all the slaves on Titch’s uncle’s plantation, he was selected to lead a free and fulfilling life.
“As he navigates uncharted lands and impossible odds,” the show’s official description reads, “Wash finds the courage to imagine a future beyond the confines of society.”
Led by co-showrunners Selwyn Seyfu Hinds (The Twilight Zone) and first-time producer Kimberly Ann Harrison, Washington Black also counts This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown among its many executive producers. Interviews to promote the show clearly illustrate Brown’s pride to be a part of the series behind the scenes, although the Emmy winner hopes his onscreen role as Medwin Harris also inspires “belief and hope for modern audiences” (per USA Today).
As the “de facto mayor” of Halifax’s Black community, Harris “relishes his role in creating community, knowing that there is safety in numbers,” Brown said, adding that “through his relationship with this young man, he learns that being safe and being free aren’t necessarily the same thing. And while he tries to teach Wash what is necessary to survive, Wash winds up showing him what it means to truly live.”
Washington Black is a coming-of-age story, sure, but it is also so much more than that. Through sweeping vistas of 19th-century agrarian Barbados, up to Norfolk, Virginia — courtesy of a makeshift hot-air balloon — and into Canada, Wash meets with Arctic explorers, fellow inventors and newly freed former slaves looking to start lives and careers of their own. Wash’s experiences speak to the importance of representation and, more than anything else, to the resilience and strength of the human spirit.
“Washington Black inspires me,” Brown told BlackFilmandTV.com. “This young man and the adventure he undertakes remind me of how the power of imagination and the creativity of artistry can transform the world in which we live. Selwyn Seyfu Hinds has taken the transcendent words of Esi Edugyan and created a spectacular universe that brings to fruition the power of possibility.”
Hinds added: “The world has felt like we’re living in darkest night, stumbling to find and hold onto a North Star to make a way forward. Like many of us, I’ve felt lost far too often. But writing Washington Black these past two years has guided me back home. This story of a young Black boy who becomes a globe-trotting artist, scientist and inventor. This tale of the true human superpowers: hope, love, empathy, persistence. Those ideas have been my North Star. The promise that we will get through the long night and take flight like Wash under the light of the sun. This show has been a conduit to that faith for those of us who’ve been creating it, and we’re beyond thrilled to be about the business of sharing it with all of you.”
Washington Black, streaming Wednesday, July 23 on Disney+