Titch makes Washington his assistant

Titch makes Washington his assistant by bringing him from Faith Plantation to live and work at his quarters. The appointment opens a new life of scientific study and illustration, but it remains shaped by enslavement: Titch can recognize and cultivate Washington’s abilities while still calling him property, and the work does not protect Washington from racist treatment elsewhere.

Appointment and Terms

After Gaius tells Washington that Mister Wilde has asked for him, Big Kit urges Gaius to say the boy is asleep and cannot be found. Gaius refuses. The man who has requested Washington is not the plantation master, Erasmus Wilde, but his brother, Christopher Wilde, known to those close to him as Titch.

Titch explains that Washington is to live at his quarters as his manservant. He presents scientific assistance as Washington’s real task, while also assigning him the immediate work of cleaning and cooking. Washington does not understand the arrangement at first, and Titch pauses to ask whether he objects. The scene establishes the mixed character of the offer: a place in Titch’s household and access to scientific work, but on terms decided by a man with power over him.

Work and Learning

Washington calls this the beginning of his strange second life. His days combine scientific observation, household duties, and lessons in reading. In the mornings, he and Titch examine the previous day’s work and record measurements. Titch makes the notes at first; as the weeks pass, Washington increasingly contributes, though his writing remains rough. Their afternoons are spent examining the plantation’s flora before Washington returns to clean and cook. In the evenings, Titch helps him sound out a simple book, a task Washington comes to dread.

The practical investigations make a striking contrast with those lessons. They collect rainwater to test its acidity, use barrels to catch eels and measure their electricity, and gather beetles for experiments in bottles of serum. Titch approaches the natural world through close, physical observation, and Washington is drawn into that method. The appointment therefore does more than change his duties: it gives him sustained access to scientific work and begins the development of his own capacities as an observer and recorder.

Assistance and Unequal Status

The tension between Washington’s expertise and his legal status becomes explicit during the voyage with Captain Benedikt Kinast. When the captain challenges Titch for trusting Black men to handle the craft, Titch replies that he cannot risk losing fifteen enslaved workers. Later, as the storm eases and the three men speak more easily, Kinast questions whether Washington can properly be called Titch’s friend because he is property.

Titch agrees that Washington is his property, but argues that he has proved himself an excellent scientific illustrator and that he has therefore made better use of him as a personal assistant than as a manual laborer. He points to Washington’s ability to express aeronautical methods in ink and insists that the men should treat him with respect. The defense recognizes Washington’s intellectual and artistic contribution, yet it does not challenge the ownership that makes the appointment possible. Washington is valued as a skilled worker while remaining subject to a system that denies him control over his own status.

Opportunity and Its Limits

The assistantship helps establish Washington’s scientific and illustrative work, but it does not place him beyond racial hierarchy. After the pair reach Norfolk, the Kinast brothers allow them to leave discreetly, give them provisions and coins, and ask only that their ship and names not be mentioned. Titch nevertheless warns Washington that mercy can be withdrawn, making caution part of the freedom they have gained.

That warning proves relevant beyond the voyage. In Nova Scotia, Washington fears that kidnappers may seize freed Black people and carry them back into slavery, and he is attacked in the street by a local man. Later, during the crossing to England with G. M. Goff, a passenger objects to Washington’s presence among the viewers and says he belongs below deck with the animals. G. M. Goff is outraged and intervenes, but the incident shows that Washington’s scientific role and proximity to respected men cannot shield him from public racism. Titch’s appointment is a consequential opening into work and learning, not a release from the structures that continue to define Washington as property in the eyes of others.