1 On July 5, 1852, Douglass gave a speech at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, held at
Rochester's Corinthian Hall. It was biting oratory, in which the speaker told his audience, "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.
You may rejoice, I must mourn. And he asked them, 'Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to day?"
2 Within the now-famous address is what historian Philip S. Foner has called 'probably the most moving passage in all of
Douglass' speeches
3 What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the
gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy
license; your national greatness, swelling vanity: your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless your denunciation of tyrants
brass fronted impudence, your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery: your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks
givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy a thin
veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more
shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.
What is the dominant rhetorical strategy Douglass uses in the third paragraph to achieve his purpose?
A)
allusion
B)
metonymy
C)
onomatopoeia
D)
repetition