Love Across the Color Line

By Kathy Peiss and Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz

Book Overview

This book examines a remarkable collection of twenty-seven letters written by a white working-class woman to her African American lover in 1907 and 1908. Stuffed inside a black lace stocking, the letters were hidden under the floorboards of a house in Northampton, Massachusetts, until their recent discovery. Reflecting the passions and anxieties of the moment, the letters were written by Alice Hanley, the daughter of Irish Catholic immigrants, to Channing Lewis, a cook in Springfield. Since the thoughts and feelings of women like Hanley have usually been filtered through middle-class reformers, her words provide a rare window into a realm of American social life seldom explored by historians. The letters are accompanied by essays that skillfully probe their larger meanings. Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz introduces the letters, placing them in the context of their time, while journalist Phoebe Rolin Mitchell recounts the story of their discovery. Kathy Peiss explores Hanley's life, her negotiation of illicit love, and her desire for respectability, re-creating a dense and textured world of home, church, and town. Historian Louis Wilson unearths the trail left by Lewis and members of his extended family in Springfield. Reviewing the experiences of African Americans in that city, Wilson clarifies the economic, social, and political position of a black, middle-aged breadwinner during the difficult years of the early twentieth century.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558490248
• ISBN13: 9781558490246
• Release Date: May 1996
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

important history in a lace stocking

While renovating an old house, a person found a lace stocking filled with love letters from a woman to a man. Also enclosed is a photo of a black woman. Instead of being correspondence between two blacks, it turns out that these letters were written by an Irish-American woman to her black male lover. History buffs and amateur genealogists should love this book. Outside of the interracial context, this book answers how do you find more information when you come upon a historical artifact. The answer is to look at old census documents, old maps, old magazines. Also, let people know what you found and see if someone may know helpful third parties. Just as modern techniques show that we leave our DNA everywhere, for approximately 150 years or so, Americans have left photographs and writings everywhere. Your reality can be found, even a century after the fact. The editor of this book said that the contributors knew this book must be a collaboration from the start. I actually think a historian with a background in women's history, African-American history, and local Massachusetts history could have written this book all by her- or himself. The extant letters were written by Alice to Channing; there is no existing two-way correspondence here. However, the book stated that when relationships fell apart, women often asked their paramours for their letters back. So while I thought that Channing may have kept these letters, it was actually Alice who did so. In that same vein, the book uncovers much more about Alice than Channing. In fact, it stands out that the chapter devoted to her is deep whereas the one devoted to him is scant. Still, you gotta work with whatcha got. This book is inspiring in that it proves such relationships did exist before Loving v. Virginia. However, that is where the inspiration ends. This relationship was riddled with abuse, jealousy, "gold digging," and misogyny. Just as Frederick Douglass wed a different white woman than the one to whom he wrote love letters, Channing never divorced his white wife to marry Alice. Patricia Hill Collins has soundly condemned the idea that this pairing is Root's "love's revolution." That stands out here. In fact, modern census figures show that couples co-habit interracially much more than they wed interracially. While this book does mention Smith College at several points, it never brings up that Northampton is now nicknamed "Lesbianville, USA" by its own residents. Greenwich Village was known for its tolerance toward interracial couples and gay couples. The authors here never state whether Northampton residents of that era would have been equally open-minded. This book does leave some questions unanswered. Alice was 32 when she wrote to Channing and 40 when she married another man. Did she pursue Channing because she didn't want to be an "old maid"? Channing was obviously literate, but the authors never suggest how he learned to read. They mention several times tha