Writers differ in the purpose for which they write. Some aim to entertain, but the more serious and skilled writers usually have the goal of expressing a serious idea. Writers such as Hariet Beecher Stowe and Alex Haley are writers who write for more than mere entertainment. Uncle Tom's Cabin, w...

Frederick Douglass Douglass was born in Talbot County, Maryland, though he does not know the year, as most slaves are not allowed to know their ages. Douglass remembers being unhappy and confused that white children knew their ages, but he was not allowed even to ask his own. He estimates, ba...

Early in his life, former United States President Thomas Jefferson wrote onhis gravestone: "Here was buried, Thomas Jefferson, Author of theDeclaration of Independence of the Statue of Virginia for religiousfreedom, Father of the University of Virginia." He wrote these texts at thebeginning of his p...