What is Charles Sumner?
{{Infobox officeholder |name=Charles Sumner |image=Charles Sumner 1855 BPL-crop.jpg |caption=[[Daguerreotype]] of Senator Sumner, 1855 |jr/sr=United States Senator |state=[[Massachusetts]] |party= [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] (earlier [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]], [[Free Soil Party|Free Soil]], [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]) |term=April 24, 1851 &ndash; March 11, 1874 |preceded=[[Robert Rantoul, Jr.]] |succeeded=[[William B. Washburn]] |birth_date={{birth date|1811|1|6}} |birth_place=[[Boston|Boston, Massachusetts]], [[Massachusetts]] |death_date={{death date and age|1874|3|11|1811|1|6}} |death_place=[[Washington, D.C.]] |resting_place = [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]]<br>[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] |spouse={{marriage|Alice Hooper Sumner|1866|1871}} (divorced) |profession=[[Politician]] |footnotes=| |signature=Charles Sumner (signature).svg }} '''Charles Sumner''' (January 6, 1811 &ndash; March 11, 1874) was an [[Americans|American]] politician, and lawyer. He was senator from [[Massachusetts]] from April 24, 1851 until his death. ==Career== Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts. He was a leader of the [[Radical Republicans]] in the United States Senate during the [[American Civil War]]. He worked to destroy the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]], free all the slaves and keep on good terms with [[Europe]]. During [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]], he fought to minimize the power of the ex-Confederates and guarantee equal rights to the [[Freedmen]]. ===Brook's attack=== [[File:Southern Chivalry.jpg|thumb|left|200px|The attack of Charles Sumner, 1856]] In 1856 Sumner made a speech against slavery and the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]]. Sumner attacked many senators about [[bleeding Kansas]] and slavery including Senator [[Stephen A. Douglas]] and [[South Carolina]]'s [[Andrew Butler]]. The Representative from South Carolina, [[Preston Brooks]] (Andrew Butler's nephew), became angry because he attacked his uncle. Brooks