Charles Sumner, Slavery, Sexual Assault, and the 1856 Election

Michael D. Pierson is professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and the author of The Wild Woman of Cincinnati: Gender and Politics on the Eve of the Civil War.

"In 1856, Charles Sumner became the first-ever senator to accuse a colleague of sexual assault. He did so in 'The Crime Against Kansas,' a five-hour-long speech that prompted a proslavery congressman to beat Sumner nearly to death. In this masterful book, Michael D. Pierson uncovers the subtleties of the speech-its complex allusions, rhetorical innuendos, and signals to current events. He presents the speech as a groundbreaking defense of the dignity of enslaved women, situating it within the women's rights movement. This fascinating book resuscitates one of our country's greatest works of oratory and is vital reading for literary scholars and historians of feminism and abolitionism."-Zaakir Tameez, author of the Thomas M. Cooley Book Prize-winning Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation "Michael Pierson's account of Charles Sumner's famous 'Crime Against Kansas' speech and its impact breaks fresh ground. Pierson convincingly contends that southern fury directed at Sumner-not least through the brutal caning administered by Congressman Preston Brooks-was triggered by Sumner's conspicuous connection of slavery to sexual violence against enslaved women and white wives. Northern women's influence on Sumner's thinking about the South's 'peculiar institution'-a noteworthy feature of Pierson's argument-enhances the value of this impressively researched and elegantly constructed book."-Michael J. Birkner, coeditor of The Worlds of James Buchanan and Thaddeus Stevens: Place, Personality, and Politics in the Civil War Era