# Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (1811–1874) was a Massachusetts senator and, with [[Thaddeus Stevens]] in the House, the leading **Radical Republican** in the Senate during Reconstruction. An antebellum abolitionist — famously caned nearly to death on the Senate floor in 1856 — he led the Senate campaign for Black civil and voting rights and vigorously opposed [[Andrew Johnson]]'s lenient Reconstruction policy. > Status: **stub** — expand Sumner's biography, the 1856 caning, and his Reconstruction-era civil rights advocacy. ## See Also - [[Thaddeus Stevens]] - [[Reconstruction and Its Overthrow]] - [[Andrew Johnson]]