Charles Sumner – 1811-1874

On May 22, 1856, Sumner, a fiery anti-slavery senator from Massachusetts, was savagely beaten with a cane by South Carolina representative Preston S. Brooks on the Senate floor in retaliation for his having maligned the state of South Carolina and one of its senators, Andrew P. Butler, Brooks’ uncle. To the North, the caning represented southern brutality at its worst and served to galvanize abolitionist sentiment and to bring civil war closer. As for Sumner, his injuries were so severe that it took him three years to recover.