"Frederick Douglass was so focused on "boxes" in this quote because they were a stand-in for "the closet," another place where people feel trapped and hidden. The obvious conclusion is that he was gay and transgendered and unable to express it openly in those homophobic, transphobic times. He was trying to tell us how much he longed to pop out of those boxes and say, 'Listen, bitches, my pronouns are they and them.'"