Industrial Age · North America · Politics

1856

Sumner Caned in Senate

May 22, 1856

After Charles Sumner's vicious anti-slavery speech insulted a South Carolina senator, Representative Preston Brooks walked onto the Senate floor and beat him unconscious with a gold-headed cane. Sumner took three years to recover; Brooks received new canes from admirers. Political violence had reached the chamber itself. The republic was coming apart.

More from 1856 Industrial Age

In context

Also in 1856 (4 other events on record)

Bessemer Steel Process · Europe · Technology
Arrow Incident · East Asia · War
Treaty of Paris · Europe · Politics
Flaubert's Madame Bovary · Europe · Culture

Before and after in North America

Before: 1855: Leaves of Grass Published
After: March 6, 1857: Dred Scott Decision

Before and after in Politics

Before: March 2, 1855: Nicholas I Dies
After: March 6, 1857: Dred Scott Decision

Era

Industrial Age (1801–1900), one of 513 events from that era on Saeculum.

Sources

Wikipedia: Charles Sumner