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Charles Sumner Biography

U.S. Senator

Charles Sumner was a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1851-74) who was active before and after the Civil War in the movement to abolish slavery and give equal rights to black Americans. In 1856 Sumner read a hot-tempered speech, "The Crime Against Kansas," in which he condemned his opponents on the issue, including South Carolina's Senator Andrew P. Butler. Two days later Preston Brooks, Butler's nephew and a Congressman from South Carolina, entered the Senate chamber and beat Sumner unconscious with a cane. Brooks was a hero to his constituents and was re-elected; Sumner, who took three years to recover from the beating, was a martyr to his contituents and was re-elected. Sumner was one of the most powerful members of the Radical Republicans, whose insistence on immediate equal rights for blacks (and punitive measures against slaveowners) caused him to clash with presidents Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson and Ulysses Grant.

Blog posts mentioning Charles Sumner:

Four Good Links

Charles Sumner

Photo and brief remarks on his career

Charles Sumner

Biography followed by selected speeches and related texts

Charles Sumner

Career profile from a site devoted to Andrew Johnson's impeachment

The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner

The U.S. Senate has the story of his famous beating

Vital Stats

Birth

6 January 1811

Birthplace

Boston, Massachusetts

Death

11 March 1874
(age 63)

Best Known As

The anti-slavery activist who was caned in the U.S. Senate in 1856