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Love Across Color Lines: Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass
In this nuanced, sympathetic interpretation of two extraordinary lives, Maria Diedrich acquaints us with an important and little-known relationship. Ottilie Assing, an intrepid German journalist, met and interviewed Frederick Douglass in 1856, and it was an encounter that transformed the lives of both. Diedrich reveals in fascinating detail their intimate twenty-eight-year relationship, their shared intellectual and cultural interests, and their work together on Douglass's abolitionist writings. Love Across Color Lines is a profound meditation on nineteenth-century racial, class, and national boundaries, and offers new insights into the career of a preeminent American leader.
512 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 6, 2024
Very cut-and-dry biography about the relationship between Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass, with the majority of the book being devoted to the perspective and life of Ottilie.
I did like it for that reason. So much information is available about Frederick (for good reason). The book centering around Ottilie offered knowledge about her place in history.
The book is cut-and-dry and rather unemotional. The author does not really choose “sides” and is critical towards both Ottilie and Frederick at times. The unbiased perspective is a plus rather than a negative, and the rather unemotional tone of the book is not really a negative either. But for people looking for a sentimental “love story” avoid this read.
One of my favorite things about this book was how it so effortlessly weaved information about America at large and other historical figures.
I did like it for that reason. So much information is available about Frederick (for good reason). The book centering around Ottilie offered knowledge about her place in history.
The book is cut-and-dry and rather unemotional. The author does not really choose “sides” and is critical towards both Ottilie and Frederick at times. The unbiased perspective is a plus rather than a negative, and the rather unemotional tone of the book is not really a negative either. But for people looking for a sentimental “love story” avoid this read.
One of my favorite things about this book was how it so effortlessly weaved information about America at large and other historical figures.
December 14, 2012
This is a book rich in history and gives the reader an interesting peek into the social and political world of German immigrants, abolitionists and the triumph over slavery. It is much more than a story of an interracial relationship. The author takes an affair that occurred over a hundred years ago and shows us the joy and sadness it brings to those involved in this intricate relationship. The author has done her research in writing this book and I enjoyed the photographs included. It is always nice to have a visual image of the people you are reading about. This would make a good “history” book for high school students when studying the Civil War era.
April 10, 2019
When this book arrived in the mail I was overwhelmed by is heft. A 480pp trade paperback in what had to be 6-8 point font floored me. How would a slow reader like me ever complete this monster? I must say after reading it I am so completely satisfied that I did. Diedrich’s profound work of nothing less than brilliant scholarship regarding the most intimate relationship of Frederick Douglass’ life has left me nothing short of stunned. Thank you, Maria, for this brilliant work.
October 18, 2009
the sheer life-long passion of the abolitionists is a signal example to us all. these people are AWESOME, and the presentation ain't bad either.
April 4, 2010
Fred was something else!
June 6, 2014
Add to your reading list to better understand race relations in US antebellum South. Douglass is not the only one with this story.
Read
June 7, 2016very tedious read
April 29, 2021
A 21st Century woman obsessed with productive and passionate anti-racism, I feared for years after buying Love Across the Color Lines to begin this history of the 28-year friendship/romance linking the German/Jewish woman, Ottilie Assing, with African American slavery emancipator Frederick Douglass. It might show me as a similar fool.
Author Maria Diedrich, a German professor of American studies, tells us why many have never heard of Ottilie: most of her papers were burned at her death at her request. However, despite their lifelong quarrel, Ottilie's sister Ludmilla had saved a bundle of 90 letters, bequeathed to a German library along with the papers of their erudite uncle Varnhagen. The papers survived WW II hidden in a Polish monastery and nearby library. Dietrich, toward the end of her book, quotes sections of these sisterly letters which leave no doubt that Ottilie claimed a romance with Douglass. Pursuing more archives, Diedrich discovered a photo album Ottilie had willed to Douglass.
The Assing sisters, and their parents David Assur and Rosa Maria Assing, identified with a literary class of German bourgeoisie attached to the ideals of the failed revolution of 1848. Ottilie came to the US to escape increasingly repressive German politics, and met Frederick Douglass. She saw a role model in 17th century writer Aphra Behn's novel Oroonoko, which featured a strong, erotic South American Black male hero.
Diedrich concludes that Ottilie viewed her relationship with Douglass through long-term rose colored glasses. She should have known he'd never leave his African American wife Anna Murray, who'd born all his children and helped him escape from slavery, even though he was frustrated she never learned to read and write. Anna kept the house up rather than trying to keep up with Douglass in his political goals and travels. Ottilie showed tragic disrespect for Anna. Her racist lack of understanding of the importance of family in Black life proved perhaps her greatest mistake. However, she was painfully aware that her adopted country had broken its Civil War promises to its own Black nation.
For 28 years, living with various friends including Douglass and his family from New York City, Rochester, NY to Hoboken, NJ and Washington DC, Ottilie acted as an aide in constant dialog and relationhip with him. She published travelogs of her journeys and articles keeping Germans and German-Americans up to date on the abolition cause. She translated Douglass' first autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom, into German. She helped him write speeches and lectures, accompanying him on some speaking tours, so many mutual friends were aware of their relationship.
Over the years, we watch Douglass grow weary of racist persecution; two of their family houses were burned by arsonists. His sons and son in law served in the Civil War only to struggle keeping jobs or succeeding in business. Douglass was relieved to accept a position in the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes for some economic security, but Ottilie was dismayed to see him raise few objections to the rollback of African Americans' rights during 1877-81 as Reconstruction was cut short. Even the short-lived security did not keep Douglass from stress or his family from sickness.
Anna Murray Douglass died in 1882, while Ottilie was in Europe to settle her sister's estate. Within a year, she heard that Douglass had married his secretary, Helen Pitts—a white woman 20 years younger than he. In 1884, Ottilie reported that she was suffering from breast cancer. She got her personal affairs in order and swallowed a fatal cyanide pill in a park in Paris. She willed her personal papers and a small annual trust fund to Douglass. She never married, left no children.
Between the Civil War, Reconstruction, domestic turmoil, and Ottilie's romantic projections of the heroic Fred against a Romantic Era backdrop, one can imagine Douglass's life was never easy. Neither was Ottilie's chosen role as an artist dwelling in the crevices of respectable society. Because or in spite of her romantic folly, her backstage contributions as a white supporter of Black liberation will never be fully known.
Diedrich gives us two quotes to sum up Ottilie's story:
“Love is a divine catastrophe, and when it kills you, you die a blessed death.”--Clara Mundt in her novel "Aphra Behn"
“Yet we know that nothing is perfect, Least of all a man.”-- Rosa Maria Assing's poem “On the Morning of a Wedding”
Maybe we are all somebody's fool.
Oh.One more thing. As other reviewers have noted, the print in this book is very small and hard to read. Somebody in the racist publishing world maybe doesn't want us to read it???
Author Maria Diedrich, a German professor of American studies, tells us why many have never heard of Ottilie: most of her papers were burned at her death at her request. However, despite their lifelong quarrel, Ottilie's sister Ludmilla had saved a bundle of 90 letters, bequeathed to a German library along with the papers of their erudite uncle Varnhagen. The papers survived WW II hidden in a Polish monastery and nearby library. Dietrich, toward the end of her book, quotes sections of these sisterly letters which leave no doubt that Ottilie claimed a romance with Douglass. Pursuing more archives, Diedrich discovered a photo album Ottilie had willed to Douglass.
The Assing sisters, and their parents David Assur and Rosa Maria Assing, identified with a literary class of German bourgeoisie attached to the ideals of the failed revolution of 1848. Ottilie came to the US to escape increasingly repressive German politics, and met Frederick Douglass. She saw a role model in 17th century writer Aphra Behn's novel Oroonoko, which featured a strong, erotic South American Black male hero.
Diedrich concludes that Ottilie viewed her relationship with Douglass through long-term rose colored glasses. She should have known he'd never leave his African American wife Anna Murray, who'd born all his children and helped him escape from slavery, even though he was frustrated she never learned to read and write. Anna kept the house up rather than trying to keep up with Douglass in his political goals and travels. Ottilie showed tragic disrespect for Anna. Her racist lack of understanding of the importance of family in Black life proved perhaps her greatest mistake. However, she was painfully aware that her adopted country had broken its Civil War promises to its own Black nation.
For 28 years, living with various friends including Douglass and his family from New York City, Rochester, NY to Hoboken, NJ and Washington DC, Ottilie acted as an aide in constant dialog and relationhip with him. She published travelogs of her journeys and articles keeping Germans and German-Americans up to date on the abolition cause. She translated Douglass' first autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom, into German. She helped him write speeches and lectures, accompanying him on some speaking tours, so many mutual friends were aware of their relationship.
Over the years, we watch Douglass grow weary of racist persecution; two of their family houses were burned by arsonists. His sons and son in law served in the Civil War only to struggle keeping jobs or succeeding in business. Douglass was relieved to accept a position in the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes for some economic security, but Ottilie was dismayed to see him raise few objections to the rollback of African Americans' rights during 1877-81 as Reconstruction was cut short. Even the short-lived security did not keep Douglass from stress or his family from sickness.
Anna Murray Douglass died in 1882, while Ottilie was in Europe to settle her sister's estate. Within a year, she heard that Douglass had married his secretary, Helen Pitts—a white woman 20 years younger than he. In 1884, Ottilie reported that she was suffering from breast cancer. She got her personal affairs in order and swallowed a fatal cyanide pill in a park in Paris. She willed her personal papers and a small annual trust fund to Douglass. She never married, left no children.
Between the Civil War, Reconstruction, domestic turmoil, and Ottilie's romantic projections of the heroic Fred against a Romantic Era backdrop, one can imagine Douglass's life was never easy. Neither was Ottilie's chosen role as an artist dwelling in the crevices of respectable society. Because or in spite of her romantic folly, her backstage contributions as a white supporter of Black liberation will never be fully known.
Diedrich gives us two quotes to sum up Ottilie's story:
“Love is a divine catastrophe, and when it kills you, you die a blessed death.”--Clara Mundt in her novel "Aphra Behn"
“Yet we know that nothing is perfect, Least of all a man.”-- Rosa Maria Assing's poem “On the Morning of a Wedding”
Maybe we are all somebody's fool.
Oh.One more thing. As other reviewers have noted, the print in this book is very small and hard to read. Somebody in the racist publishing world maybe doesn't want us to read it???
Read
September 6, 2021Interesting and sad. Love across all lines, leaves much to be desired, even in these days and times. Much to be believed as a visitor to his home on Capital Hill and observing items there.
November 20, 2022
This was an interesting historical read. I was enthralled with the story line. Very well written.
June 27, 2015
I read this book mostly for research material for a book I'm writing. While a little dry (which, I think, is often the nature of the beast with biographies) I found myself gasping at the end. Without giving away the ending, I can say it was certainly not what I expected.
May 22, 2012
Fresh look at Douglass and his friend of many years.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews