The Caning of Charles Sumner occurred on May 22, 1856, within the United States Senate chamber and was a significant event leading up to the Civil War. At the time, tensions were high over the issue of slavery in the expanding United States, particularly concerning whether new states admitted to the Union would permit slavery.
Charles Sumner, a senator from Massachusetts and a leading anti-slavery advocate, delivered a fiery speech titled "The Crime Against Kansas." In it, he criticized pro-slavery forces and specifically targeted Senator Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina, referring to him in derogatory terms for his support of slavery and his role in the conflicts over Kansas, where pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions were violently clashing (a period known as "Bleeding Kansas").
Butler's cousin, Congressman Preston Brooks, was enraged by Sumner's remarks. Two days after Sumner's speech, Brooks entered the Senate chamber while Sumner was seated at his desk, and he attacked him with a gold-headed cane. Brooks struck Sumner multiple times, leaving him severely injured. Sumner was unable to return to the Senate for several years due to the extent of his injuries.
The caning scandal highlighted the deep divisions over slavery in the United States and underscored the violent nature of the political conflict of the time. Brooks became a hero to some in the South for defending Southern honor, while Sumner became a martyr for the anti-slavery cause in the North. This incident served as a precursor to the intense sectional conflict that would ultimately lead to the Civil War.