This book examines the semi-public relationship that Ottilie Assung created and sustained with Frederick Douglass. In the introduction, Diedrich talks about the secrecy--among Douglass biographers--revolving their relationship despite the public nature of it at public gatherings and such. Diedrich also discusses how this privacy could have stemmed from many reasons, one being that biographers did not have access to the papers of Assing because some of them were destroyed.
Although, Diedrich adds that Assing's letters to her sister provide some clues as to Assing's relationship with Douglass. Throughout time, Douglass' biographers have had different purposes for writing their biographies of him, some historically situated to attempt to promote an African American cultural icon to confront and combat the ideology of racism at a particular place and time. However, a public historical documentation (one based on fragments of historical evidence) of Douglass' relationship with a white woman during the nineteenth century is a controversy that Diedrich knows is sure to unsettle the biographical tradition that Benjamin Quarles and William McFeely--among others--created in order to represent the iconic Douglass within American history. Nevertheless, Diedrich believes that this interracial relationship is worth examining because, as she states, "race does matter".
