Brooks Beats Sumner With a Cane on the Senate Floor
https://archivesbb.nbclearn.com/portal/site/BbHigherEd/browse/?cuecard=373
General Information
Source:
NBC News
Resource Type:
Creator:
N/A
Copyright:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
1856
01/12/2007
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video MiniDocumentary
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
2007
00:01:19
Description
Professor Eric Foner of Columbia University explains what happened when a southern Congressman
attacked a northern Senator on the floor of the Senate over the issue of slavery.
Keywords
Congressman Preston Brooks, Senator Charles Sumner, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Slavery, Violence
, Civil War, Bleeding Kansas, Fugitive Slaves, Anti-Slavery, North, South, Eric Foner, Columbia
University
Citation
MLA
"Brooks Beats Sumner With a Cane on the Senate Floor." NBC News. NBCUniversal Media. 12 Jan.
2007. NBC Learn. Web. 23 October 2015
APA
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1 of 3
2007, January 12. Brooks Beats Sumner With a Cane on the Senate Floor. [Television series episode].
NBC News. Retrieved from https://archivesbb.nbclearn.com/portal/site/BbHigherEd/browse/?cuecard=373
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"Brooks Beats Sumner With a Cane on the Senate Floor" NBC News, New York, NY: NBC Universal,
01/12/2007. Accessed Fri Oct 23 2015 from NBC Learn:
https://archivesbb.nbclearn.com/portal/site/BbHigherEd/browse/?cuecard=373
Transcript
Brooks Beats Sumner with Cane on the Senate Floor
Professor ERIC FONER (Columbia University): The issue of slavery became more and more volatile and
violent in the 1850s. You had, long before the war broke out, violence was working its way into American
politics. “Bleeding Kansas,” which is a civil war out there. You had violent rescues of fugitive slaves,
people arrested as fugitives, and then a mob would rescue them in the north and send them off to Canada.
And you had this assault on the floor of the Senate, unprecedented, where Congressman Preston Brooks of
South Carolina basically snuck up behind – it wasn't the very honorable thing to do – snuck up behind
Charles Sumner, the Senator from Massachusetts, while he was sitting at his desk after the Senate had
adjourned.
Sumner had delivered a very strong anti-slavery speech, I think, called "The Barbarism of Slavery," which
southerners didn't like very much. And he seemed to be insulting Senator Butler of South Carolina, who
was a cousin of Brooks, the Congressman from South Carolina. Brooks thought this was an insult to his
family. And he snuck up behind Sumner with a cane and started beating him over the head with this cane.
And eventually, this was stopped, but this showed you how even on the floor of Congress, the north-south
division was becoming, you know, difficult to control, to say the least.
Related Cue Cards
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
https://archivesbb.nbclearn.com/portal/site/BbHigherEd/browse/?cuecard=326
NBC's Jamie Gangel gives a tour of Monticello, Thomas
Jefferson's home. Thomas Jefferson was the author of the
Declaration of Independence and the third president of the
United States.
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2 of 3
Indentured Servitude
https://archivesbb.nbclearn.com/portal/site/BbHigherEd/browse/?cuecard=499
Before slavery fulfilled the labor needs of the colonies,
plantation owners offer indentured servitude to attract laborers
to the colonies. In exchange for travel expenses, these laborers
are expected to work the land for several years.
Thomas Jefferson's Rough Draft of the Declaration of
Independence
https://archivesbb.nbclearn.com/portal/site/BbHigherEd/browse/?cuecard=1658
Thomas Jefferson's original rough draft of the Declaration of
Independence is put on display at the Library of Congress in
honor of Independence Day. There were 86 edits made to the
rough draft, mostly made by Benjamin Franklin.
Rich and Poor Whites in the Pre-Civil War South
https://archivesbb.nbclearn.com/portal/site/BbHigherEd/browse/?cuecard=431
In the years before the Civil War, white society in the South is
divided between the wealthy class known as the Planter
Aristocracy, and the poor yeoman farmers of the backcountry.
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3 of 3