Narrative of the life of fredrick douglass
by frederick douglass (excerpt)

i was quite a child, but i well remember it.
i never shall forget it whilst i remember any thing.
it was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which i was doomed to be a witness and a participant.
it struck me with awful force. it was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which i was about to pass. it was a most terrible spectacle.
i wish i could commit to paper the feelings with which i beheld it.

which rhetorical device does the author use in this sentence to make the reader feel the horror and violence the slaves were subjected to?
it was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which i was about to pass.
simile
personification
metaphor
paradox