Charles Sumner And The Free-Soil Party

Charles Sumner was an influential orator, abolitionist, lawyer, and Massachusetts Senator. Despite being white he still believed in equal rights for everybody. He helped form the Free-Soil Party, which opposed slavery in newly discovered western territories and worked alongside government officials including Abraham Lincoln to keep former confederate officials out of the federal government after the civil war to keep slavery out. He helped as much as he could on the government side to abolish slavery and make it stay that way.

Born to Charles Pickney Sumner and Relief Sumner on January 6, 1811, Charles Sumner grew up well educated in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents both grew up in poverty but his father became a Harvard-educated lawyer

“Sumner identified two Democratic senators as the principal culprits in this crime” (https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm In this oration he attacked the authors of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Charles Butler and Stephen A. Douglas. After the speech Butler’s nephew, Preston Brooks, was outraged by the speech and challenged Charles to a duel. After learning that duels of this manner were meant solely for men of equal status, Preston decided to beat Charles with his cane. So on May 22nd, Preston went to Charles at his desk and said “Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is libel on North Carolina and Mr. Butler who is a relative of mine.” and before Charles could stand up Brooks gave a him a severe blow to the head and continued to beat him until his cane broke and Sumner was motionless. Brooks was later fined $300 dollars for his actions, which would now be approximately $9,000 dollars in today’s world. Many southerners praised Brooks and his actions and would send him new canes in endorsement to the assault. Due to Sumner’s head trauma, he would now have severe headaches, nightmares, and what is now considered to be Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. As a result he would leave the senate and not return until 1857. Doctors recommended an overseas voyage and an escape from all responsibilities of his job. He did this by traveling to Paris for 2 months in the spring of 1857 where he would attend operas and frequently dine out with his old friend Thomas Gold Appleton. When he returned to America he found the work in the senate to be boring so he sailed to Paris again on May 22nd, 1858, just two years