Brooks-Sumner Affair | Palmetto Heritage

In 1857 during the heated debate on Kansas in the Senate, Charles Sumner delivered a two-day speech entitled "The Crime Against Kansas," which contained an insulting denunciation of Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina. Two days later, Senator Butler's nephew, Representative Preston Brooks, avenged his uncle and the South by bludgeoning Sumner with a cane. Representative Edmunds, (D Va) cautions Preston Brooks to remain calm about the matter but Preston enters the Senate Chamber and attacks Sumner.

Standards

• 3-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of life in the antebellum period, the causes and effects of the Civil War, and the impact of Reconstruction in South Carolina.
  • South Carolina played a key role in events that occurred before, during, and after the Civil War; and those events, in turn, greatly affected the state. To understand South Carolina’s experiences during this tumultuous time, the student will uti...
    • 3-4.3 Explain the reasons for South Carolina’s secession from the Union, including the abolitionist movement and the concept of states’ rights.
• 4-6 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the causes, the course, and the effects of the American Civil War.
  • Regional economic interests led to social and political differences that seemed insurmountable by 1860. To understand why the United States was forced to settle sectional differences through civil war, the student will utilize the knowledge and skills...
    • 4-6.3 Explain the specific events and issues that led to the Civil War, including sectionalism, slavery in the territories, states’ rights, the presidential election of 1860, and secession.
• This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into the continuities and changes experienced by Americans of various genders, positions, races, and social status during the Civil War.
  • This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into how debates over slavery led to the Civil War.
• 8-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the multiple events that led to the Civil War.
  • The outbreak of the Civil War was the culminating event in a decades-long series of regional issues that threatened American unity and South Carolina’s identity as one of the United States. To understand how South Carolina came to be at the cent...
    • 8-4.3 Analyze key issues that led to South Carolina’s secession from the Union, including the nullification controversy and John C. Calhoun, the extension of slavery and the compromises over westward expansion, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred S...
• This indicator was designed to encourage inquiry into the continuities and changes of the experiences of marginalized groups such as African Americans, Native Americans and women, as the U.S. expanded westward and grappled with the development of new states.
  • This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into the debates, heightened by Westward Expansion, over federal and state power concerning slavery, and the government’s role in protecting and securing natural rights.