Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina thrashes…
May 1856 CE
Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina thrashes Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate on May 22, 1856, for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathize with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas.
Sumner will be unable to return to duty for three years while he recovers; Brooks will become a hero across the South.