"A single word from the white men was enough-against all our wishes, prayers, and entreaties-to sunder forever the dearest friends, dearest kindred, and strongest ties known to human beings" (Douglass Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass 90). These words came out of Frederick Douglass after what he had experienced and taken a part of in his life as a slave. However, instead of conforming to the society and let the facts crush him, he used the reality as a motivation and dedicated his life into achieving equality and freedom for African Americans. Douglass wrote not only to persuade skeptics of his authenticity, but also to act as a medium by which the underrepresented could speak out. He showed the inequalities and injustices in American society, and tried to change it with the pen instead of the sword. His writings' influences obviously include inequalities in American society, personal experiences with the slave institution, abolitionist society, civil war, as well as religion. Collectively, all of these influences would contribute to the reasons that he wrote in such a sincere, passionate tone in his essays and narratives.
             During the 1800s in the United States, equality was a word that only a few white men dared to claim. Realizing the injustice for woman and slave, Frederick Douglass wrote about these injustices to make a change for the better in his society (Altman 72). Through reading any of Douglass' essays, it becomes evident that he speaks out for those that are not able to do so themselves. One of these underprivileged castes was the population of women, who were excluded from the ballot as well as from the other rights (Altman 79). In one of Douglass' early editorials, he proclaims: "woman herself loses in her estimation by her enforced exclusion from the elective franchise" (Douglass Frederick Douglass: In His Own Words 153). In his essay, "The Rights of Woman and Man are Ident...