Charles Sumner

Biography

Charles Sumner (1811-1874) was a prominent American statesman and abolitionist who served as a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts for nearly three decades. A leading Republican intellectual and fierce opponent of slavery, Sumner was known for his eloquent speeches in the Senate and his uncompromising stance on civil rights. His career was marked by his caning by South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks in 1856, an attack that became a symbol of sectional tensions before the Civil War.