John Willard

John Willard is a fugitive agent associated with Erasmus Wilde whose pursuit of Washington Black continues to shape Washington’s sense of freedom long after they are separated. Though the evidence presents him chiefly through a reward notice, the fear of his agents, and the news of his execution, these traces make him a continuing presence in Washington’s life: first as a threat of recapture, finally as a figure Washington believes he sees in a crowd at the gallows.

Identity and Role

Willard appears in a printed notice as the acting agent for Erasmus Wilde. The advertisement names Washington as George Washington Black, describes him as an enslaved boy for life, and offers a reward of one thousand pounds for his capture, dead or alive. It warns that he may be travelling with a tall white abolitionist with green eyes and black hair, identifying Titch as his companion. The notice turns Washington’s escape into a matter of ownership and pursuit, making Willard the named representative of a system determined to reclaim him.

The Threat of Recapture

After reaching Shelburne, Washington remains afraid that freedom can be revoked. He knows that kidnappers patrol the coast, seize freed Black people, and carry them toward the Southern states to be enslaved again. He links this danger to Willard’s agents, whose presence on the docks has become part of his continuing apprehension. The threat is not only personal: Washington’s account places Willard’s pursuit within the insecurity faced by Black people whose legal freedom offers no reliable protection against capture.

The Written Record and Its Limits

Washington encounters the bounty notice years after first seeing it posted in Virginia, while searching the Faith Plantation records with Tanna. Its language records his scars, clothing, status, and travelling companion as identifying details for capture. The notice gives an official-looking form to Willard’s claim, but Washington’s encounter with it is also part of a wider confrontation with records that reduce people to entries, property, or evidence. In the same archive, Washington finds the date of Big Kit’s death in a work log; the documents preserve facts while exposing the dehumanizing terms in which enslaved and formerly enslaved lives were recorded.

Death and Recollection

At the northern camp, Washington tells Titch that Willard has died and that he was present at the hanging. Titch has heard of the death and remarks that it was not a pleasant one. Washington says he felt fated to witness it and thought he saw Titch in the crowd, following the figure afterward. Titch suggests it may have been his spirit. The exchange joins Willard’s actual execution to Washington’s uncertain perception: the pursuer is dead, but the memory of pursuit still shapes how Washington sees and interprets the past.