preview

Summer Caning Research Paper

Satisfactory Essays

Summer Caning
The Summer Caning happened 1856, in Washington D.C. Only three main people were involved in this event, Charles Sumner, Preston Brooks, and Andrew Butler.
What started the caning was Charles Sumner’s speech on, “Crime Against Kansas” In his speech he also insulted Andrew Butler by comparing prostitutes to slavery. The prostitute being Andrew Butler’s wife. many people told Sumner not to, but he did anyway. Since he did this Andrew Butler's cousin goes to the Senate and beats Sumner with a cane. His cousin Preston Brooks beat Sumner so severely, that he didn't come back to the senate for 3 more years. The northerners reaction was that they were extremely mad at Brooks for what he did. They thought he was a criminal and furious …show more content…

Then in 1859, they got even more threatened by the raid on Harper’s Ferry. John Brown led 18 men on a raid, they men were a mixed of white and African American. John Brown was targeting an arsenal, which is a storage unit for weapons and ammunition. Brown also wanted to start a rebellion, by giving weapons the slaves, so they would kill their owners with the weapons from the arsenal. Local citizens and federal troops quickly stopped them, Brown himself was convicted of treason and murder and was sentenced to be hung. An uproar in the North started, some northerners disliked what Brown had done. While many of the others thought he was a hero for his act of bravery. He was later called a martyr, a person who dies for what he believes in, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
His death became a very big controversial topic, and both north and south had split extremely. The south was now scared that the abolitionist that favored John Brown, were going to start a conspiracy. It is very important to leading to the Civil War because it showed how the north and south were now killing and murdering each other over the topic of slavery. Many people from both north and south have been scared of rebellions and now the nation is separating even more.
Abraham Lincoln elected president in 1860 (include session of first southern states) During the 1860 election, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass were the main two people involved. Both of the candidates were at an equal chance of winning, now they just had to win the vote of the north or

Get Access