Question

Read this excerpt from "The Hypocrisy of American Slavery" by Frederick Douglass, a former slave and a leader of the abolitionist movement. Whom does the speaker address in this speech?

What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of 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 shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, 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 of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.

Go search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.

all residents of the United States
all the nations of the world
the white population of the United States
African Americans still under slavery
leaders of the Southern states

Answer 1

Frederick Douglass, a former slave and a leader of the abolitionist movement, addresses in "The Hypocrisy of American Slavery"  the white population of the United States.
He talks about how this celebration that white Americans have has nothing to do with slaves and is quite appalling.

Answer 2

The correct answer is C. The white population of the United States

Explanation:

The audience of a text or speech is the group of people the author is addressing to during a speech or text as the ideas or topic the author is addressing concerns to this specific group of people or is related to it. Determining to whom is the author addressing is not always easy as it is not usually stated explicitly but suggested through the context of the text or speech and the language used in it. In the case of the excerpt from "The Hypocrisy of American Slavery," the author criticizes the celebration of Fourth of July and other common celebrations in the U.S. as he believes these celebrations just show the injustice and cruelty slavers had suffered and not the freedom the people claim. Additionally, during all the text the author emphasizes the barbarity in the U.S. and even states this country abuses do not compare to the abuses in any other country.

This implies the author is criticizing and addressing to the oppressor of slavers and considering he is part of the abolitionist movement and the context of the text it can be concluded he is addressing to the white population in the U.S. as it is this part of the population the one that is responsible for the abuses and all the elements the author criticizes in the text.