Moral stain
Edugyan describes slavery as being a "moral stain" repeatedly in the novel. For example, when Wash says to Titch: “You were more concerned that slavery should be a moral stain upon white men than by the actual damage it wreaks on black men.”
Slavery imagery
Wash describes being a slave, using imagery to emphasize the hardships he endured: “I thought of my existence before Titch's arrival, the brutal hours in the field under the crushing sun, the screams, the casual finality edging every slave's life, as though each day could very easily be the last. And that, it seemed to me clearly, was the more obvious anguish- that life had never belonged to any of us, even when we'd sought to reclaim it by ending it."
Cold imagery
When Wash moves away from home, he finds himself in a cold atmosphere that is unfamiliar, describing the relative coldness using imagery: "The hours passed; in the warm, dim glow of the igloo I sat staring at the thumbs of my torn mittens. I did not want to stay in that place. All my life I had known only the warmth of the Indies, the fresh salt of the sea air. I felt shuttered up, boxed in, shuddering with a cold no blanket or animal hide or fire could keep out."
