History of the United States I / Unit 14 USH1 1993 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Caning of Charles Sumner
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The idea
In his Crime against Kansas speech Charles Sumner attacked Andrew Butler of South Carolina with sexual allusions, comparing slavery to prostitution.
In practice
Sumner naming the harlot Slavery as the mistress Butler had chosen and made his vows to.
Where people slip
Butler was Preston Brooks's uncle. Brooks beat Sumner with a cane on the Senate floor, and Sumner was incapacitated physically and mentally for years.
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