Charles SumnerCharles Sumner (1811-1874) was trained as a lawyer and served as Senator for the state of Massachusetts from 1851 until 1874. He was the acknowledged leader of the abolitionist movement in his state, and was perhaps most famous for being nearly beate to death by a fellow senator from South Carolina after a particularly fiery anti-slavery speech in 1856 in which he compared slavery to whoredom. Read More Read Less