In this nuanced, sympathetic interpretation of two extraordinary lives, Maria Diedrich is the first to acquaint us with an important and little-known relationship.
In 1856 Ottilie Assing, an intrepid journalist who had left Germany after the failed revolution of 1848, traveled to Rochester, New York, to interview Frederick Douglass for a German newspaper. This encounter transformed the lives of both: they became intimate friends, they stayed together for twenty-eight years, and she translated his autobiography into German. Diedrich reveals in fascinating detail their shared intellectual and cultural interests and how they worked together on his abolitionist writings.
As is clear from letters and diaries, Douglass was enchanted with his vivacious companion but believed that any liaison with a white woman would be fatal to his political mission. Assing was keenly aware of his dilemma but certain he would marry her once his mission was fulfilled. She was bitterly disappointed: after his wife's death, Douglass remarried--another woman. Assing committed suicide, leaving her estate to Douglass.
Love Across Color Lines is a profound meditation on nineteenth-century racial, class, and national boundaries, and a fascinating new interpretation of a preeminent American leader.
