Sumner was probably the most vocal abolitionist in the Senate. What was Preston Brooks thinking at the time of the caning of Sumner?Ĭharles Sumner was a Boston-raised and Harvard educated attorney. In today's public schools, history is only taught through modern cultural bias, which makes an event or idea, quite reasonable in the past, seem horrific to a modern child. The press of the country was no less adept at spin and hyperbole in 1856 than it is today. Brooks' actions represent a typical Southern predilection to violence it caricatures every Southerner as a slave-beating overseer. The image is not historically accurate, and is pure Northern propaganda. A faceless barbarian (South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks, Democrat) mercilessly beats a gentle quill-wielding martyr (Senator Charles Sumner, Republican, Massachusetts), his blood dripping off the cane.

The print depicts a brutal senseless act, with leering faces in the crowd.

This image is ubiquitous in every public school textbook of American history (that I have seen, including my 12 year old's).

Facts about preston brooks