Book Club

4 takeaways from Book Club’s ‘The Great Abolitionist’ discussion

Author Stephen Puleo joined Boston.com to discuss his new biography on Charles Sumner.

By Annie Jonas

May 24, 2024

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Charles Sumner was an outspoken abolitionist, American lawyer, politician, and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate. On May 22, 1856, Preston Brooks, a representative from South Carolina, walked onto the Senate floor and severely beat Sumner with a cane in retaliation for an abolitionist speech Sumner had given days before. 

Sumner’s life and political legacy, while exemplary, has been left to the margins of American history. But Stephen Puleo, an author and historian who has written close to a dozen books (several of them on Boston), dives into the rich details of Sumner’s life in Boston.com Book Club’s May read, “The Great Abolitionist: Charles Sumner and the Fight for a More Perfect Union.” 

The book is the first major biography of the trailblazing politician to be published in half a century, and explores the groundbreaking biography of the forgotten civil rights hero.

At our latest virtual author discussion, Puleo was joined by Totsie McGonagle of Buttonwood Books & Toys to discuss “The Great Abolitionist,” Sumner’s impact throughout American history, and his friendship with Abraham Lincoln. 

Read on for takeaways from their discussion, watch the recording below, and sign up for more Book Club updates.

Charles Sumner’s arguments were used hundreds of years later by civil rights activists

In 1849, before he was elected to office, Sumner represented a five-year-old Black girl named Sarah Roberts, whose father sued the Boston School Committee because Sarah was unable to attend a school located close to their house on Andover Street, a school that educated white children only.

At the hearing, Sumner gave a fiery speech that spoke to the injustice of segregated schooling, and his argument stood the test of time for the next 100 plus years. He used the phrase “equal justice under the law” for the first time in American history, saying that separate but equal is inherently unequal, Puleo said.

The arguments he made in the Sarah Roberts case eventually got woven into the 14th amendment’s equal protection and due process clauses, and 105 years later in 1954, Thurgood Marshall used Sumner’s argument from 1849 in the Brown versus Board of Education case. Martin Luther King also used Sumner’s arguments in the Civil Rights Act, he said.

“His arguments really set the tone for him as a national leader,” Puleo said.

Sumner’s caning was a watershed moment for American history

By coincidence, our May Book Club happened to occur on the 168th anniversary of Sumner’s caning. Representative Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used a walking cane to attack Sumner in retaliation for an invective-laden speech given by Sumner two days earlier. As a result of the attack, Sumner spent the next three years away from the Senate (his seat was left vacant, but unfilled) enduring brain trauma, spinal injuries, PTSD, and painful treatment. Despite the horror of the incident, the caning helped bring the debate over slavery out of the shadows of academic and political debate and into painfully clear view before the country. 

“It takes the slavery debate from an academic and political debate to a real, visceral, emotional, gut wrenching debate,” Puleo said. “After that, the dominoes fall pretty quickly until Civil War comes. It still takes five years [for the war to arrive], but a lot can be traced back to that caning moment.”

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Sumner were kind of besties

The prologue of Puleo’s book starts with President Abraham Lincoln in his bed after he was shot, with Sumner by his side. Sumner and a few nurses kept vigil at his bedside overnight. The image is a powerful one, given that he and Lincoln had grown very close in what Puleo considers a very short time. 

“They didn’t meet until Lincoln first came to Washington to be inaugurated in March of 1861. And by the time Lincoln is assassinated, they are close friends,” he said.

Summer taught Lincoln a bit about foreign policy, while in turn, Lincoln taught him about “strong moral courage, standing up even if somebody is not politically popular,” Puleo said.

Sumner wasn’t known to be particularly socially well-versed, and Lincoln helped introduce him to humor.

“Sumner is humor-less. He has a very difficult time relating to people, he’s a little bit sanctimonious,” Puleo said. Lincoln, on the other hand, was known for his easy way with people and congeniality. For example, when Lincoln goes to City Point, Virginia in April of 1865 to shake the hands of 5,000 wounded soldiers, Sumner is “amazed.”

“[Sumner] watches Lincoln inspire these men without patronizing them and is pretty astounded at Lincoln’s leadership ability. They learn from each other, and I think it’s one of those very complex relationships, but a very deep relationship that occurred in a very short time,” Puleo said.

Sumner’s voracious letter-writing helped Puleo write and develop his character

Puleo said researching for the biography was “a blessing in disguise,” and he considers himself lucky because of Sumner’s multitude of letters. Sumner wrote thousands of letters, and received thousands in return, making information about his character and interior life readily available.

“Going through that, you can get a sense of who he is as a character, you can get a sense of the period. The primary sources are just so rich from this period,” Puleo said.

Although it was certainly no easy feat, Puleo considers his biography of one of the nation’s forgotten civil war hero’s to be a “labor of love.” By digging into Sumner’s character, and discovering who he was as a politician and person, Puleo developed a fondness for the elusive and seemingly daunting figure.

“When you look at how awkward he is with people, it makes him vulnerable in a way. He’s this giant political figure in one way, but he’s vulnerable in another way. When you have these real life characters, it’s something that you look for. They are multi-layered,” Puleo said.