teaching journal

douglass research

I'm going to gloat a bit about finishing my blog assignment the same day I assigned it. Here's my question: Who was Douglass' second wife, who was white?
Answer: Helen Pitts
Research path: google - typed in "frederick douglass" and "second wife" -- perhaps the most informative link was the one from the Mt. Hope cemetery in Rochester NY, where Douglass and his first wife, Anna Murray, and his second wife, Helen Pitts, are buried. Then I typed in "helen pitts," and wow, did I find out a lot of stuff. Let's see if I can summarize.

Turns out Douglass had several affairs. The first was with Julia Griffith, a British abolitionist who lived in the Douglass household in Rochester tutoring the children and acting as Douglass' manager and secretary for work on the newspaper, the Northern Star. Griffith eventually moves out to decrease negative publicity for Douglass. A lot of the information on Griffith I got from this Timeline of Frederick Douglass and Family.

Then, Douglass has this 28-yr. affair with a German-Jewish journalist, Ottilie Assing, who was from Hamburg and visited Douglass to interview him. She translated some of his work and spent each summer for 22 years at the Douglass' household. She also tutored Douglass' children, taught Douglass German, and got him to read Feuerbach so that Douglass would become more of an atheist. Much of the material about Ottilie Assing came out in 1999 with Maria Diedrich's publication of her book, Love Across Color Lines: Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass. I like this review of the book by Christopher Irmscher. Assing wrote the introduction to her German translation of the Narrative, and I would love to be able to read that but am having a hard time finding it. At any rate, Ottilie belittled Anna Murray Douglass, who remained illiterate all her life in spite of reading lessons. As Douglass became more famous and more educated, Anna seems to have faded more and more into the background. She and Douglass had five children. I keep wanting to hear Anna's story, but she hasn't left us a written record of her experiences. Someone I read suggested (I think it's in the review above), that Anna's illiteracy was a conscious choice on her part, perhaps partially because Douglass' increasing knowledge seemed to take him closer to white western culture and farther from southern African(American) culture.

Douglass' and Assing's relationship started to cool off, at least on Douglass' part. After Anna Murray died, Douglass married Helen Pitts, an abolitionist and suffragist twenty years younger than Douglass (Helen was also his secretary). Ottilie Assing was convinced that Douglass would eventually marry her. A few months after finding out about Douglass' marriage to Helen Pitts, Assing committed suicide. She had also found out she had breast cancer. Apparently she left her $13,000 estate to Douglass, and the money was to be paid out over many years. Hmmm.

Pitts parents, who were both abolitionists, were not pleased with her daughter's marriage, just as Douglass' children were upset. On Douglass' death in 1895, Helen Pitts wanted their home in Washington D.C. to be declared an historical monument, but Douglass' heirs wanted the home sold and the proceeds divided up. Helen Pitts worked hard to ensure the house remained a public site and the home is now maintained as part of the National Parks system.

Finally, I found out that Jewell Parker Rhodes has written a novel called Douglass' Women, published in 2003, which is about Anna Murray Douglass and Ottilie Assing. Guess I've got another novel to read soon!

I have to admit that my admiration of Douglass has been roughed up a bit. I want to say, "Typical man!" And I really want Anna's story.

posted by Sandra @ 6:16 PM