22 mai 1856 - Caning of Charles Sumner

Description:

During the Bleeding Kansas Crisis, abolitionist Charles Sumner of Massachusetts gave a speech denouncing slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, insults his colleagues who support slavery. In response, Preston Brooks of South Carolina assaulted him with a walking cane, nearly killing him. This is indicative of just how polarized the United States had become, and is symbolic of the civil war to come.