 January/February 2003
The Douglass Women
by Jewell Rhodes Parker
More often than not, extraordinary lives are shrouded in obscurity, especially when measured against time and magnified beyond proportion if it's subjective to a historic figure for comparison. Adequate research allow us to reach across time and get a second look at abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the women behind his success..and what a story they have to tell!
Jewell Parker-Rhodes' awe-inspiring account of this story is told within the pages of her new book, The Douglass' Women. Insightful and profound, we get a chance to witness the trials and tribulation of two women conveying the range and depth of emotions felt loving the same man...or reveling in the skill of the author displaying the idiosyncracies of polar opposites. These are differences underscored by the constant jockeying for position, with both of them longing for the answers of who belongs.
This book is more than a story of love and passion. It gives a different view of Frederick Douglass beyond his fight for the abolition of slavery and his eloquence for public speaking. It reveals his emotions and human side to fragile interpretations of the heart, and why he made the decisions concerning the need to have these women beyond amorous liasions. A good case can be made for this novel in assessing interesting ways to look at how a man trreated love and passion, what made him do the things he did for love, and what drove him to continue when it was evident that it was not to his best interest . It's more in my opinion too, about innuendo gone awry...about the extremes present with a man hell-bent on espousing the importance of his life's work in lieu of guaranteeing matrimonial happiness at the expense of two that thrived on (his) acceptance.
The book ascertains from the beginning and builds to heightened awareness of what led to Ottillie's presence, and sustained reasons why he chose to stay married. Reasons supplied in the book tell why they were as influential to him despite, if not because of, the circumstances attributing to his persona. It was written in the style of alternating perspectives of distaff Anna Murray Douglass and Ottilie Assing, with occasional reference to Frederick Douglass' daughter Rosetta.
Let's look at the personas of each: Anna Douglass was a plain and simple free black who did more for Douglass than portray the duties of a wife. If not for her, Douglass would not have made it up north. She suffered in her own rebellous way, demanding answers that wasn't given to her until a fateful meeting with her antagonist, Otillie (if you can depict her as such). Ottilie Assing was a well-educated abolitionist Jew from a well-to-do family, who not only became his constant companion, speech writer, public relations guru, translator, but also his...lover. Rosetta Douglass loved and revered her father, but felt inferior to the point of always needing the wherewithal to please him, and to live up to being a child of the great Frederick Douglass. Add all of the intrigue and dialogue from both Anna and Ottilie, you get adjectives such as passion, jealousy, resentment, and envy.
It's stories like this that are not always in the public domain, but may elicit a situation where in one person's mind there's reason to perpetuate an uneasy solidarity in sharing love, in an unrequited way. It's important when reading this book that you're mindful of how the author was able to weave it in a way where telling a good story is equal to the parts rendered. What these ladies poured out of their souls made this book what it is, and how parallels were were drawn for constrast. I imagined without recourse that their character makeup via how these thoughts were conveyed, gave Ms Rhodes all the ingenuity needed to make this a poignant and compelling read. She did it by allowing us a seat in each of their imaginations, displaying all of the anst, anger, and anticipation of any type of reciprocality. I felt that the rotating narratives were extremely functional in making a case for it to be a two-sided tale.
When reading this novel, there are questions to be answered: Did he really love these women, and to what extent? Was his decision(s) motivated by practicality or real passion? And, how were they able to come to terms with the situation? For this reviewer, reasons were evident that the black vs. white issue was irrevelent as opposed to what each woman got out of the relationship, and what lessons were learned. It should be evident too, about how Jewell Parker-Rhodes expertly made the picture bigger by applying the canvas with enough color to paint the passions and tensions in the lives of these women, each giving reason and implied rationale to belong. Display this book among the other Duglass collectibles. Buying and reading this book is a must if you want to get yet, another view of one of history's prolific men.
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