Washington Black begins with a character introduction: that of George Washington "Wash" Black, who is born into slavery in Barbados. Black is raised by a man named Kit, who remembers having freedom and having a life before slavery. Black and Kit's slave master is a cruel man; they work in the field for hours on end with no break and endure horrific punishment.
They work in the field for years but are one day invited into the main house to be servants. After a while (and a number of hardships and unfortunate happenstances), Black devises an escape plan so that he could escape all the pain and suffering he and his fellow slaves had to endure.
Black eventually escapes to Virginia with the help of a German ship captain. While in Virginia, he learns some troubling news that causes him to want to go the Arctic. He swiftly leaves the Arctic and decides to finally settle down in Shelburne, Nova Scotia.
He lives in fear in Nova Scotia for three years, paranoid that fugitive slave hunters will capture him.
Eventually, Wash learns that someone he knew from the slave plantation is alive in London (he had thought that the friend, named Titch, had died). Wash doesn't find Titch in London, but he does find him in Marrakesh, Morocco.
