Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation

by Zaakir Tameez

"A thorough recounting of the great legislator’s life and deed... unlikely to be bettered anytime soon... Tameez is expert at explaining Sumner’s legal thought... One cannot help wishing we had a Charles Sumner in Washington today."
— The New York Times

"An excellent book about the courageous Massachusetts senator... Drawing from hundreds of letters, articles and speeches, Mr. Tameez has created a remarkable portrait of a complex man who faced many personal challenges... Charles Sumner is a moving portrayal of a courageous, long-overlooked American who, in the words of one contemporary, 'stood in the vanguard of Freedom.'”
— Wall Street Journal

A landmark biography of Charles Sumner, the unsung hero of the American Civil War and Reconstruction.

Charles Sumner is mainly known as the abolitionist statesman who suffered a brutal caning on the Senate floor by the proslavery congressman Preston Brooks in 1856. This violent episode has obscured Sumner’s status as the most passionate champion of equal rights and multiracial democracy of his time. A friend of Alexis de Tocqueville, an ally of Frederick Douglass, and an adviser to Abraham Lincoln, Sumner helped the Union win the Civil War and ordain the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

In a comprehensive but fast-paced narrative, Zaakir Tameez presents Sumner as one of America’s forgotten founding fathers, a constitutional visionary who helped to rewrite the post–Civil War Constitution and give birth to modern civil rights law. He argues that Sumner was a gay man who battled with love and heartbreak at a time when homosexuality wasn’t well understood or accepted. And he explores Sumner’s critical partnerships with the nation’s first generation of Black lawyers and civil rights leaders, whose legal contributions to Reconstruction have been overlooked for far too long.

An extraordinary achievement of historical and constitutional scholarship, Charles Sumner brings back to life one of America’s most inspiring statesmen, whose formidable ideas remain relevant to a nation still divided over questions of race, democracy, and constitutional law.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Civil War, American History, Politics, Audiobook

640 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2025

Reviews

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was worried when I started Zaakir Tameez's Charles Sumner. Not because of anything Tameez did, but because I already read through Stephen Puleo's The Great Abolitionist and I wondered if Charles Sumner could truly keep me interested for over 1,000 combined pages between the two tomes. Turns out I didn't have to worry, although I will be taking a break from Mr. Sumner for a bit!

Tameez tells the story of the guy you probably know for getting caned in congress (ok, the Senate but the alliteration was right there and I couldn't resist). This one episode completely obfuscates a tremendous life that is both inspiring and very complicated.

The star in this book would normally be Sumner, but Tameez's writing style and choices are excellent. This is a long book which does not overstay its welcome. The author feels like he is moving at a brisk pace while also providing an immense amount of detail. Also, while Tameez clearly has an affection for his subject, he is not afraid to point out the faults of his subject. Sumner was no saint and, while a politician, he could have a massive ego and blind-spot for certain things. All in all, don't be afraid of the page length. This one is definitely worth your time.

(This book was provided as a review copy by the author.)

[Logan Kedzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can someone make a musical about this guy? While secular music is still permitted?

This is a biography of Charles Sumner, the Massachusetts senator before, during, and after the U.S. Civil War. Sumner was an early member of no less than three political parties (Free Soil, Republican, and Liberal), all of them influential in their era, yet none around today.

The author, a lawyer himself like Sumner, focuses on Sumner's relevance in his jurisprudence, a sort of small-c, small-p conservative progressivism. While at a time when the Constitution was irreconcilable to human dignity and civil rights, Sumner represented the redemptive take. The Constitution stood for an increase in liberty, thus it should always be read with that in mind. He also gave us the term equal protection under the law, at least as a term of art, and the name Alaska, or popularized it.

Sumner's oratory was legendary. He has, perhaps, the benefit of history, but he put his considerable education to its best political use. Likewise his Rolodex. The list of Sumner's confidants and corespondents would overwhelm a review to try and list, so the clever comments fly freely between them. It also earned him enemies, notably within his own party(ies) that would effectively block him from any office outside of senator. Oh, yeah, and the guy who beat him up on the Senate floor.

This is a masterful biography. It is long, and moves slowly, but it is worth it. The author is a lawyer acting as historian, which works because it manages to provide a lot more context to Sumner's life and work. The relevance of Sumner's father and grandfather in his beliefs is particularly interesting in what can only be described as trauma working itself out well. The speculation on his sexuality is middling. I feel like it is going to draw a lot of attention, and outside of the impossibly of speculation, Sumner scans to me less gay than asexual, with a misogynistic streak that seems drawn from the Greek and Roman work with which he was familiar. (Okay, there is that book, but he did not write it).

What moves it from like to love for me is the time spent on Sumner's career after the U.S. Civil War and how that ought to re-frame our thinking about the country.

There are many figures who were important in their time and are forgotten about now. That is what history is. The act of repeating and restating that to figure out what is meaningful. In the case of Sumner, his reduction to a AP history note about the causes of the Civil War is more than the fickleness of memory and reputation, but a memory hole out of the Lost Cause mythos and the result, first of perfidy, then of negligence, of the campaign to re-imagine the Antebellum south as something other than the mother of terrorists and treasoners.

Sumner’s attacker would get written as having a Texas defense, where, sure, it was a crime, but Sumner had it coming fro being so outspoken about slavery, making Sumner less a victim of violence – violence, which should be noted was both premeditated and chosen to invoke the violence of slavery – as someone who shared responsibility for what happened to him.

This is a convenient lacuna. Forgetting why Sumner achieved the popularity he did allows the erasure of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the power that Black voting had and the fear it provoked, before it was crushed, buried under legal arguments that are equal to or better than the ones used for the act around a century later. Sumner has his faults: pride, certainly, no consideration for the American Indian, and an antipathy to women's rights, but he stands out as someone who was not anti-slavery but pro-racial equality. He does not just outshine his contemporaries, but politicians now.

My complaint about the book is that it sort of name checks this elision of Sumner's legacy, but as a blur of quotes in the beginning and the end. Yes, it is outside of the scope of biography, but it seems relevant to understanding the texture of the biography, and what sort of lessons it could take moving forward as the citizens of the republic labor under new attempts to erase Black history et al.

My thanks to the author, Zaakir Tameez, for writing the book, and to the publisher, Henry Holt & Company, for making the ARC available to me.

[Mr. Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can also see this review, along with others I have written, at Mr. Book's Book Reviews.

Thank you, Henry Holt & Company, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Mr. Book just finished Charles Sumner: Conscience Of A Nation, by Zaakir Tameez.

This book will be released on June 3, 2025.

This is the second new biography on Charles Sumner that I’ve read this year. In September, I gave The Great Abolitionist, by Stephen Puleo, an A. So, the bar was set high for this one.

One of the great things about history books is the little tidbits that are always contained in them. One example from this book is a quote from Marquis de Lafayette, decades after the Revolutionary War, in which he said, “I would never have raised my sword in the cause of America, if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery.”

Most of this book dealt with Sumner’s time in the US Senate, both as a leading abolitionist prior to the Civil War and then continuing through the war. During the war, Sumner was a huge advocate of remaking southern society in order to ensure the rights of the former slaves would be guaranteed and to prevent the same white supremacist class from retaking power. After the war, Sumner was one of the leaders in the efforts to get voting rights and civil rights for blacks.

I give this book an A.

Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

Mr. Book finished reading this on November 29, 2024.

[Dylan Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

You gotta feel for Stephen Puleo. You’re a veteran nonfiction author, who’s already written a book about the most famous incident in Sumner’s life, and you put together a solid, well-researched bio, the first book-length biography of the man since David Donald’s volumes in 1961 and 1970 (which haven’t aged well given Donald’s strong bias toward the South).

Then the next year, some recent law school graduate authoring his first book writes a Sumner bio that blows yours out of the water, that explores whole sagas and characters in his life that you don’t mention at all, that gives a visceral and intuitive sense of who the man was: his character, his foibles, his friendships, his anxieties. I would be furious. I’m not being wry or facetious: I have, as a writer and journalist, been in that situation myself, of writing a piece you’re proud of and then seeing another writer take on the same topic and do a clearly better job, and it is deeply frustrating.

Tameez has written one of the most impressive biographies I’ve ever read, on my Mt. Rushmore with the likes of D’Emilio on Bayard Rustin or Caro on Moses. He has an incredible eye for detail, especially when it comes to anecdotes illustrating key aspects of Sumner’s personality — cerebral and ceaselessly analytical, serious and humorless, moralistic and judgmental but always in service of good causes and tempered by an intense devotion to those closest to him.

He gives significant attention to Sumner’s lifelong connections to the black communities in Boston and then DC. Charles grew up in a white family in a predominantly black neighborhood in Back Bay, bullied by the likes of his future friend Wendell Phillips for living amongst the negros. Some of his closest DC confidantes in the 1860s and 70s were members of the black middle class: not just full-time activists like Fredrick Douglass but also people like the hotelier James Wormley and restaurateur George Downing, both of whom were (along with Douglass and several members of Congress) at Sumner’s bedside as he died.

It is much too simplistic to say that these social connections caused Sumner’s racial egalitarianism, and Tameez is too sophisticated to say that. But it shows that Sumner was, unlike many white abolitionists, not merely interested in emancipation as an abstract cause on behalf of people he didn’t know or care to get to know. He felt an intense personal connection and loyalty to a broader black community.

The biggest swing Tameez takes is his contention that Sumner was gay and closeted, but I think he makes his case. (So too on the observation that Sumner was somewhere on the autism spectrum.) Plenty has been written about “romantic friendships” in the 19th century between men, and Tameez has clearly read the literature, but what was going on between Sumner and Samuel Gridley Howe was … not just that. Julia Ward Howe (of later “Battle Hymn of the Republic” fame) did not get deeply jealous of her husband’s best friend for no reason, or because she was misunderstanding a platonic but romantic friendship. Sumner’s feelings were clearly more intense than his counterpart’s, but Tameez demonstrates to my satisfaction that those feelings were much more than fraternal. In this light, Sumner’s later disastrous marriage becomes much more intelligible.

It is hard to single out specific sections for praise when the work is so uniformly excellent. The account of Sumner’s shockingly pacifist July 4th oration in Boston, and his subsequent friendship with an admiring, near-death John Quincy Adams; his brutal recovery from the caning, including a horrendous, unanesthetized treatment by the famed French surgeon Brown-Séquard wherein the doctor put wood and fungus on the senator’s back and then set it on fire; his close friendship with Mary Todd Lincoln that would no doubt delight Cole Escola; and, if I had to choose, my favorite section, on Ulysses Grant’s efforts to annex the Dominican Republic and Sumner’s opposition, which would eventually lead him to losing his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, leaving the Republican Party, and losing most of his friends and political allies.

For a long time I would’ve said that Thaddeus Stevens was my favorite Radical Republican politician, over Sumner, because while both of them were ahead of the curve in urging land redistribution and suffrage as necessary prerequisites for Southern readmission, Sumner screwed up mightily by endorsing Horace Greeley in 1872, knowing Greeley was a racist who would’ve ended Reconstruction. (Stevens had the good sense to die before that election, but it’s also hard to imagine him breaking with Grant had he lived.)

There is nothing here that convinces me Sumner was right to endorse Greeley — but much that makes his decision more explicable, and plenty that makes me reconsider my prior belief that Grant was right to push for annexing Santo Domingo. The pro-case, that the island would serve as a kind of black homeland within the US without a large enough white population to subordinate the black majority, still makes sense to me.

But as Sumner noted, this case was premised on Reconstruction failing. There was no reason that homeland could not have been, say, South Carolina. The federal government did not have the will or conviction to make that happen, but it could have chosen differently. Today, knowing Reconstruction ultimately collapsed, a Santo Domingo failsafe looks pretty attractive. In 1870, the picture was murkier — and as Sumner also stressed, annexation required propping up the brutal dictator who was attempting to sell his country. That dictator was simultaneously menacing Haiti, a country the US had already wronged plenty. The profound gratitude the Haitian government showed Sumner for his role in blocking the annexation is telling.

A small moment that sticks with me from that saga is Grant’s visit to Sumner’s home:

Grant’s visit started off inauspiciously. Sumner’s servant, seeing a small, stern, bearded man he didn’t recognize, tried to shoo him away, assuming he was a random petitioner like so many who habitually came to Sumner’s door. Overhearing a voice that sounded like Grant’s, Sumner rushed to his foyer and was startled to see his servant talking down to the president of the United States. A bit flustered, he hurriedly beckoned Grant inside and offered him a glass of sherry, which Grant refused.

If I think about it for a second, it makes total sense that a servant who had at most seen political cartoons of Grants in newspapers would not recognize him. But it’s still a striking reminder of the profoundly different information environment that an American living in DC, working for a Senator, could not recognize the president on sight.

Another late moment that struck a cord:

Charles Sumner occasionally received letters from new parents who had named their baby son after him. These letters never pleased him, despite his love for flattery. “Don’t make a mistake,” he once wrote to a father who named his son Charles Sumner. “Never name a child after a living man.” He urged the father to “simply un-name” his son and pick something else. “Who knows that I may not fail? I, too, may grow faint, or may turn aside to false gods.”

Charles Sumner Matthews was born on October 9, 2025, shortly after I read both this and Puleo’s biography. Hannah and I did not pick the name because we think his namesake never failed or erred. He did both, as even the admiring Tameez documents well, in big moments like the Greeley endorsement and smaller ones like failing to campaign for Free Soil candidates in 1852. But he’s as good a model as any we’ve encountered for the kind of citizen we want to raise — in DC, at this moment in history.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This biography is my pick for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in history. Yes, it was that good!! The author traces the life path of Charles Sumner from birth to death, but he does so with style. Along the way, we meet many other historical figures including Thaddeus Stevens, Preston Brooks, and an Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. Overall, an outstanding biography and well worth the effort!!

[Dr. Alan Albarran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Sumner is a name from history most people won't recognize, unless they happen to be from the Boston area. But I suspect that many Bostonians know little of this important person of history. I wanted to read this book after reading Robert Merry's Decade of Disunion (1849-1861), about the ten years before the start of the Civil War. If you have not read Merry's book, you will probably want to add it to your reading list.

Merry described the traumatic "caning" of Senator Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks, which happened on the Senate floor in Washington in 1856. And we think today's politics are bad! Sumner was badly injured, and dealt with the effects of the beating for the rest of his life. When I saw this biography available I wanted to learn more about Charles Sumner. This biography offers that and more to the reader.

Author Zaakir Tameez has done a masterful job detailing Sumner's life, filled with both highlights and many lowlights. Sumner was for his time the greatest abolitionist that ever lived; he grew up in an integrated area of Boston early in the 19th century, and always saw his Black neighbors as equal citizens, unlike many people of his time. Sumner fought many years for Civil Rights for Blacks, and was a staunch advisor to Abraham Lincoln to declare the Emancipation Proclamation during his Presidency.

Sumner was a bright, highly educated man who was also an idealist and full of hubris. He was convinced he was right in whatever issues confronted the Senate, where he served for decades. But many of his colleagues disagreed with him, particularly on issues related to slavery. That was the catalyst for the vicious caning by Preston Brooks.

The author suggests that Sumner was probably a gay man, although he did marry a much younger woman later in life at age 55. However, the marriage lasted only a few months before his bride left for Europe, never to live with him again. Sumner had no children beyond a step-daughter from his troubled marriage.

Sumner is at times depicted as a powerful politician and other times a depressed, tragic character. This richly detailed biography will introduce readers to a pivotal member of the Senate during the 18th century, but one not as recognizable as others we know in the era like Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Reading about this man will definitely change your views of him and his place in American history.

Highly recommended for readers interested in US history, politics, the Senate, and the fight to end slavery in America. I give it a five star rating.

My thanks to the author, publisher Henry Holt & Company, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this biography. I attest this review is my own unbiased opinion of this work.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read although I would not go as far as describing Sumner as the Conscience of a Nation. The introduction provides an overview of the whole book with each chapter going into greater detail. Sumner is best known as the man who was beaten by a cane on the floor of the Senate, but the book reveals that there much more to the individual than that one instant. He was a complicated man with held deep beliefs and was borderline unstable at times. Overall, it was okay, but a little dense for me.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.

[andré crombie · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than anyone, Sumner knew the instrumental value of a constitutional provision that referred to equality. Back in 1849, in the Roberts v. City of Boston case, he, along with Black lawyer Robert Morris, had pointed to the statement “all men are born free and equal” in the Massachusetts Constitution to argue to the state supreme court that Boston’s white-only public schools were unconstitutional and should be open to Black students. Although they lost the case, their argument paved the path for Boston’s Black community to lobby the state legislature successfully in 1855 to integrate the city’s public schools. It also led to the state supreme court’s acknowledging in dicta that “all persons without distinction of age or sex, birth or color, origin or condition, are equal before the law.”
Soon after Sumner and Morris presented their case in Roberts, Sumner published a pamphlet edition of his argument for school integration. That pamphlet popularized the expression “equality before the law,” which Sumner had effectively introduced into the English language. Adopted by several French constitutions and the constitutions of at least eight other non-English-speaking countries, the principle of “equality before the law” was rarely invoked in America before his pamphlet’s release. For the next fifteen years, leading into the amendment debates of 1864, abolitionists regularly used his phrase “equality before the law”—and the phrase is still commonly used today. Contemporaries, such as the Black law professor John Mercer Langston and the abolitionist Wendell Phillips, have attributed the slogan’s genesis in American legal thought to Sumner.
In an April 8, 1864, speech, Sumner advocated for the inclusion of “equality before the law” in what became the Thirteenth Amendment. Admitting that “the language may be new in our country,” he argued that it “gives precision to that idea of human rights which is enunciated in our Declaration of Independence.”

[Nolan Asprion · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s an absolutely detailed biography of someone whose name is only mentioned of in 11th grade US History and yet also a history of politics during the Civil War all in one. Dude got beat with a cane (which is a little sus) and then got burned as physical therapy to recover from his attack, and still would deal with brain dead politicians everyday, thank you Zaakir for telling the story of this absolute GOAT 🐐

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

I tend to be skeptical whenever someone is called "The Conscience of The Senate (or Congress)," as we all know a little too much about politicians to believe any such thing.

While there are a lot of endnotes, this is still a popular history, and one where the biographer is in love with the subject. That's not always a bad thing, but in this case, it comes off as so last year.

[Kevin Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Repetitive in some spots but otherwise fantastic.

[Shivom Parihar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tameez blatantly ignores the historical record to transform Sumner, a conservative who fashioned himself after Edmund Burke, into a progressive. In doing so, lies are told that attempt to construe Sumner as a gay man and as having grown up in a Black neighborhood, the latter of which weakens the depth of Sumner's story as a Boston brahmin denouncing hypocrisy in his class.

Not a peep is heard about Sumner's attempt to undo the separation of church and state and his legal scholarship is unjustly characterized as progressive, when it is better seen in light of modern right wing thinkers such as Adrian Vermeule.

[Mikey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very lengthy, but interesting and entertaining.

[Bookreporter.com Biography & Memoir · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is an ongoing discussion in present-day America regarding the nature of our political debate. Many have decried the anger and hostility that infiltrate our dialogue. Underlying this discussion is the belief that we should return to an earlier time in history when debate was far more civil and refined, but that is a falsely held view. By now, everyone who has seen Hamilton should recall that Alexander Hamilton’s death came from injuries suffered in a duel with his political opponent, Aaron Burr. Duels resulting from political arguments were a feature of early American politics.

Many might be surprised to learn that the floor of the United States Senate was once the scene of a vicious physical attack on Senator Charles Sumner. This incident is discussed in CHARLES SUMNER: Conscience of a Nation, a deeply researched and well-presented biography of a notable figure in history. That Zaakir Tameez was able to write this 533-page book while completing his third year at Yale Law School makes the accomplishment even more impressive.

Sumner’s time as an attorney and a politician is striking because of the many giants of American history whose intellectual careers touched his own. While a student at Harvard Law School, Sumner was under the tutelage of Justice Joseph Story, who would serve on the Supreme Court for 33 years. Story’s constitutional philosophy of a strong national government deeply influenced Sumner. After graduating from Harvard, Sumner met former President John Quincy Adams, a passionate antislavery advocate who taught him that the Declaration of Independence made a promise to the nation that “all men are created equal.” While Adams and Sumner agreed that the Constitution allowed slavery to exist in the states, they supported an amendment to abolish it in the US.

In 1849, Sumner was still a struggling attorney in Boston handling small claims and the occasional case that generated a reasonable fee. His reputation as a controversial young politician hampered his ability to draw major cases. But that changed when Robert Morris, one of two Black attorneys in Boston, contacted him about becoming co-counsel on a lawsuit seeking to integrate Boston’s public schools.

In addition to raising significant constitutional claims, Roberts v. City of Boston would be the first case in American legal history litigated by an interracial team. Sumner argued the claim of a young Black girl, Sarah Roberts, who sought to attend a public school near her home rather than the Black school located across town. He would advance constitutional theory and arguments that finally would be accepted by the Supreme Court a century later in Brown v. Board of Education. Sadly, in 1849, the Massachusetts Supreme Court was unwilling to adopt Sumner’s positions.

In 1851, Sumner was elected to the U.S. Senate as a member of the Free Soil Party. He later would join the newly formed Republican Party but was sometimes at odds with them because their position on slavery was not vigorous enough for him. On May 19 and 20, 1856, Sumner attacked supporters of the Kansas-Nebraska Act by name and labeled them as advocates for extending slavery to free states. On May 22nd, Preston Brooks, a Congressman from South Carolina, took to the Senate floor and brutally caned Sumner, who suffered permanent and debilitating injuries. This assault aroused passions in Northern states and made Sumner a martyr in the North. But it also made Brooks a hero in the South.

While there have been other biographies of Charles Sumner, including one that received a Pulitzer Prize, Tameez has the benefit of writing about his subject during the present period of political furor. Viewing Sumner in a more contemporary light as an inspiring fighter for racial equality and a prescient advocate of constitutional theory makes this book an exceptional biographical study of the man and the times in which he lived.

Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman

[Joseph Stieb · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding and inspiring book about a truly heroic American. Sumner was one of the greatest champions of human rights and American democracy there has ever been. He grew up in a largely black neighborhood in Boston, believed deeply in the message of the Declaration of Independence, and worked his entire life to bring a society of racial egalitarianism and liberty to America. He was way, way ahead of his time, especially among white people.

SUmner rose to political prominence when he replaced Daniel Webster in the Senate. Webster was willing to compromise with the Slave Power, but Sumner represented a growing wave of Americans who believed no such compromise was possible. He excoriated southerners and slaveholders as rapists, kidnappers, and torturers who had broken with the true purpose of America. For his rhetorical assaults, he himself was physically assaulted by Preston Brooks, a Democratic member of the House, who nearly killed him on the floor of the Senate and gave him lifelong psychological trauma.

Webster believed in maximizing the use of state power and the Constitution to attack slavery and build up the rights of all citizens, especially black people. When the Civil War began, he pushed Lincoln to use his war powers to undermine and ultimately destroy slavery. Lincoln moved more cautiously, and in my mind, judiciously, but there's no doubt Sumner was ahead of the curve on pushing for these changes. He then became a stalwart champion of Reconstruction and the revolutionary idea of non-racial citizenship. His post-Civil War career was tragic in that he witnessed the peak of reformism in the 14th and 15th amendments but then watched (and contributed to) the fragmenting of the Republican Party into liberal and stalwart factions, both of which drifted further away from Reconstruction. His last act was to push through a rather toothless Civil Rights bill, which was Congress' last act on civil rights until the 1950s

Sumner was a hero and a visionary, but he had his flaws, as ZT fully documents. He was not a great politician in that he refused to compromise at key times, didn't do much to actually craft and pass legislation, and became fixated on a personal rivalry with Grant to the extent that he nearly endorsed the racist Democrat Horace Greeley in the 1872 election. Sumner had another blind spot with women; he did and said little in the name of their rights during his lifetime, holding to the archaic belief that a woman was adequately represented in politics through her husband.

Interestingly, Sumner was probably a gay man. He had extremely close relationships with male friends, including letter exchanges that seem quite romantic. He married once, but it was an absolute catastrophe, and his wife spread rumors that he was "impotent" or unable to sexually perform. He even got himself into a sorts with Samuel Walker and Julia Ward Howe, the latter of whom felt emotionally cheated by SUmner's deep affection for Walker. Anyways, it was interesting to see the history of a gay person at a time when the social concept of homosexuality didn't really exist, at least not in our modern form.

It's hard to come away from this book with anything but tremendous respect for Sumner. He was singularly devoted to a vision of racial justice that we are still trying to live up to, and he was one of the greatest exponents of the idea of the American experiment in republican self-government. This book is rather long, but it's completely worth it and makes a very good listen.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone hearing the name Charles Sumner would likely only know him as the United States Senator from Massachusetts who was savagely beaten (and nearly murdered) with a gutta percha cane by South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks, who was upset that Sumner delivered a blistering personal attack on the Senate floor against Senator Andrew Butler, a relative of Brooks'. Other than that, Sumner is one of the forgotten members of the Senate, except by those who study the Civil War and the subject of slavery in the United States. Zaakir Tameez's biography sets out to reestablish the name of Sumner in the American consciousness, and as much as I liked this book, I'm not sure Tameez will succeed. The book is far too long for many people in today's sound-byte world. Tameez writes masterfully and clearly and keeps the story moving forward, but at 640 pages (almost 26 hours in the audio version I listened to), only the most interested will see it through.

Tameez goes much further than other Sumner biographies, making a case that Sumner, never comfortable with the opposite sex (he married late in life to the former daughter-in-law of a close friend whose husband was killed during the Civil War, and their marriage ended with his bride claiming Sumner was impotent), was a closeted homosexual because of letters he exchanged with Samuel Gridley Howe. Sumner became disconsolate after Howe married Julia Ward, who later would go onto lasting fame as the author of the song "Battle Hymn of the Republic." While Tameez makes a compelling case, I came away feeling that his belief that Sumner and Ward were in romantic love (Tameez doubts that there was anything overtly sexual in their relationship) has to be judged not proven.

Tameez's Sumner is a pompous, self-righteous, and egotistical man who often angers those closest to him. His main goal was in securing human rights for African-Americans and he would do whatever it took, even angering close friends (like Howe) among others to achieve that goal. Before Tameez, those interested in Sumner had David Herbert Donald's two-volume biography. Donald, one of the most prominent students of the University of Illinois professor James Garfield Randall, who believed that a "Blundering Generation" of politicians stumbled into the war because of radicals' overheated rhetoric, learned well from his mentor and painted abolitionists as too radical for much admiration. Tameez sucessfully rescues Sumner from Donald's vitriol, and assures that even at 640 pages, his biography will serve as the standard biography of Sumner for years to come.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation is a very comprehensive exploration of one of the most well-known white abolitionists in American history. I suspect some information is limited on his parents and grandparents due to lack of material, but Tameez does include it, providing context on Sumner's origins - a grandfather that served in the Revolutionary War, but refused to acknowledge Sumner's father, who grew to be a cold and strict man that as an adult Sumner had next to nothing to do with, but probably sowed the seeds of Sumner's lifelong passion to see whites and Blacks as equals. The book reads fairly easily, though it clocks in at over 600 pages. Tameez does a deep dive and explores Sumner's whole career, not giving his famous caning on the Senate floor by Preston Brooks exceptional attention over other landmark moments in his life, and does a good job of encapsulating Sumner's intensity, passion, sense of righteousness, and his unwillingness to bend if it is a compromise of his principles. At times it does feel a bit repetitive, there are things that Tameez references over and over again throughout the book, a landmark trial he co-defended with a Black lawyer for the right of a Black girl to go to a white school being a primary example. This is an important moment in his life, and set multiple precedents, not least of which being Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education decades later for almost the exact same circumstances. But it doesn't always feel like it's necessary to bring up again and again. It also covers his relationships with three presidents, including an exploration of his contentious relationship with Grant, his fellow Republican that was well respected in his role in the military, but left behind a much more checkered legacy as executive in chief. I enjoyed it and it was interesting, and for anyone that wants the extensive deep dive into Sumner's life this will cover all the bases. I probably enjoyed Stephen Puleo's The Great Abolitionist more, which was published about a year ago. That book doesn't go into quite the same level of detail, but had even better readability, and more put me into Sumner's shoes in the emotions and passions he was likely experiencing. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Andy Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

History has not been fair to Charles Sumner. This new biography does much to correct that.
The book describes his early life in Boston including his early commitment to abolitionism. His passion for that hurt both his social standing, his promising legal career and his chance at becoming a professor at Harvard law school. But as tides of the anti-slavery movement grew stronger Sumner was elected to the US Senate where he became one of the most passionate and effective opponents of slavery. Sumner was so effective that in 1856 a coward, Congressman Preston Brooks, snuck on him from behind and started beating him with a cane until Sumner was almost dead. The biography details the severe physical injuries and what would now be diagnosed as PTSD and the long recovery.
But when he recovered, Sumner resumed his anti-slavery crusade including friendly pushing of Lincoln after the start of the civil war. The book also shows his friendship with Lincoln and especially his care of Lincoln's wife, Mary, often taking her to plays and social engagements at Lincoln's request. History largely repressed Sumner's friendship with the Lincolns in its effort to discredit Sumner.
Unlike many other abolitionists, Sumner advocated for formerly enslaved people after abolition. This included drafting a civil rights bill that was later used as a template for the 1964 Civil Rights Act which showed not only that Sumner was ahead of his time but was also a brilliant lawyer.
The biography does not shy away from Sumner's faults. If he had been better at compromise he would have been more effective, a civil rights bill may have passed in 1868. And his dislike of Grant, partially because of Grant's refusal to endorse that civil rights bill, blinded him somewhat to what became the main issue in 1872 and later, whether Northern troops should be withdrawn from the south, something that I am glad that Sumner did not live to see.
There are many such nuances in the book. One was his difference with abolitionists such as Garrison who attacked the government and the constitution. Sumner's view was that the Declaration of Independence were aspirational not literal at the time. That they were a challenge to make all men created equal, not a statement of fact. That argument resonates today as does so much of his work and words

[John Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book illuminates the most famous 19th century civil rights leader who advocated abolition and racial justice. Indeed, Charles Sumner is credited with crafting the notion of "civil rights" for all humans in an era when no one before him had boldly denounced fellow U.S. senators for advocating and even tolerating slavery. Sumner viewed slavery as a shameful blot on democracy.
Tameez's book offers insights into the antebellum era, when slavery proponents held sway over society, in the South as well as the North. Sumner's consistent screeds against slavery in the 1850s turned the tide among heretofore complacent Northern whites. His denunciation of slavery provoked the brutal and prolonged cane beating on the Senate floor by Rep. Preston Brooks, an attack widely cheered by Southern lawmakers. The event prompted the Republican Party to coalesce. Unsurprisingly, Sumner became good friends with incoming president Abraham Lincoln. Sumner, who grew up in a Black section of Boston, proved to be a central figure for the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments following Lincoln's assassination.
Many in the North, Black and white, considered the tall Boston lawyer with a sonorous voice heroic. Although the near-fatal thrashing left Sumner in pain the rest of his life, he continued to fight for an end to slavery and, after the Civil War, racial equality in all areas of public life. On the eve of the Civil War, Sumner delivered his "The Barbarism of Slavery" speech in the Senate that clearly defined it a clash between good and evil.
By the middle of the Civil War, Sumner, once widely considered an unhinged Radical, began to be seen as a prophet due respect. Sumner popularized the terms "human rights" and "equality before the law" that are still in vogue today. Republicans again rallied rallied around Sumner when he opposed Lincoln's racist successor, Andrew Johnson.
Sumner co-authored the unsuccessful Civil Rights Bill in 1870 that provided the template for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. By the early 1870s, Northerners had tired of troops occupying the South and any passion for ensuring Blacks had rights. Amnesty for former Confederates proved more popular. For the last four years of his life, which ended in 1874, Sumner fought in vain to secure civil rights legislation that wouldn't begin to come until 80 years later.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liberty has been won. The battle for Equality is still pending. Charles Sumner

There should be a movie about Charles Sumner! Or a musical! He should be famous! He was larger than life in his time, an agitator and moral compass.

He served in the Senate for twenty-three years, part of three political parties–the Whig, Free Soil, and Republican.

A trip to Europe altered his life when he observed social equality for blacks; he became an abolitionist fighting for the end of slavery and civil and social rights for all men.

Sumner was complicated, imperious and contentious, garrulous and proud, but he always held himself to the highest moral standards and clung to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as his guides.

Sumner’s speeches were famous–and infamous–bringing both accolades and hatred from slave owners; a Southern senator to brutally beat him on the floor of congress, leaving lifelong mental and physical scars.

As an abolitionist, Sumner was first a pariah, then a hero and a close advisor to President Lincoln. But after the war, Sumer became anachronistic, his insistence on a Civil Rights Bill became a bore.

He was appalled when President Grant pursued the purchase of Santo Domingo and mused about taking over self- ruled Haiti to make the island a state where all the black people could relocate. He turned against his own party to support a racist Democrat! Even his old friend Frederick Douglas supported the annexation.

Depressive, a workaholic, with deep friendships with men, his late in life marriage was a disaster. He may have been unconscious of being a gay man.

Sumner rose to each challenge, even when failing health required retirement and a quiet life. He never gave up; with his last breath, he spoke of his Civil Rights bill.

A watered down bill was passed, but the social equality legislation he fought for was not addressed for another hundred years. Leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. took up Sumner’s words and goals. To this day, the fight for equality goes on.

Reading over 600 pages I thought, now it will get boring, but it never did!

An amazing biography that I hope will resurrect an appreciation of Charles Sumner.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

[Joseph J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long overdue and destined to stand for some time as the successor to David Herbert Donald's two-volume biography published over fifty years ago. Indeed. Author Zaakir Tameez points to the Donald classic as flawed in its presentation of a Charles Sumner viewed within then dominant negative portrayals of the powerful and at times emotional vocal scourge of slavery. Detailing Sumner's unorthodox upbringing as a Boston outsider, the book does not avoid questions and contemporary suppositions of Sumner's sexuality, examining 19th. century male emotional linkings in a time when the term and understanding of homosexuality did not exist. "Why don't you marry" was the question many friends and even Sumner's most passionate male attachment asked. He would in late middle age with disastrous results. AT the political center of Sumner's world was his vocal and all-embracing denunciations of slavery, involving personal verbal attacks on fellow legislators. AT his most powerful he brought the physical wrath of a South Carolina congressman who brutally caned Sumner almost to death, leaving the physically imposing senator permanently disabled. The attack may have been the opening salvo in the Civil War. Politics of this time was brutal and personal and ugly, leading me to wonder if our current political debate is unique or as American as baseball hotdogs apple pie and the chevy! Violence under the capitol dome and talk of the seizure of the government-and even a third party. Base personal attacks and inuendo on a man's appearance and handicaps and even sexuality. Sound familiar? And Sumner, a victim, also was not above practicing it! Absorbing and for the long term definitive, I have a beef with the book, the author the editors. Sumner was close to the Lincolns and especially the temperamental Mary. Noting young Willie Lincoln's tragic death in 1862, the author cites tuberculosis as the cause, and restates this (Page 269, top and below). I have always seen the cause stated as typhoid fever from a less than sanitary White House-the topic only last week of a C-Span presentation. Tuberculosis? Tad Lincoln would die of TB but a decade later. I think this deserves a check for future editions of this informative and engrossing new book

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charles Sumner, the conscience of a nation by Zaakir Tameez, although dense and parts was a pretty good read the only thing I didn’t like is the one thing historians can do to make me totally dislike their book and absolutely discredit my opinion of them and that is out someone who wasn’t that way in life. he not only states that Sumner had a relationship with Mr. Howell but further goes on to say that Charles Sumner never formed the relationships with women and never married but that is a totally false statement because he was married for seven years and although it did end in divorce and perhaps do to his proclivities but to me that is his business and doesn’t change anything about his diplomacy his love for humanity and his fight to save those who didn’t have a voice to save themselves. i’m so glad the book didn’t focus on the beating he got from racist Preston Brooks on the Senate floor but went on to talk about all the great and not so great things in his life including leaving the Republican Party mainly over there inhumane treatment of the confederate soldiers in Anderson prison. with the exception of guessing at who he mostly wanted to sleep with this is a really great historical record and although it left some things out I still think it caught the majority of where Mr. Sumner stood how he felt in his fair and loving opinions of others. I definitely recommend this book I love books about people in history and I have read some doozies and so I can in good conscience recommend this one. #NetGalley,#HenryHoltAndCompany, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview,#ZaakirTameez, #CharlesSumner,

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t typically read thick historical biographies, but I’ve long been fascinated by Charles Sumner and the Radical Republicans, so I gave this one a shot, figuring I could jump around or skim if it got slow.

Instead, I wound up reading every word, often flipping pages as though it were a thriller. It’s thorough and deeply informative, yet never loses a sense of narrative. The writing is crisp, and the it effectively balances Sumner’s story against the broader story of the era.

It helps, of course, that Sumner is a fascinating character and truly one of the most influential and virtuous figures in American history. Parallels to today’s politics and lessons for a modern American seeking a better world jump from practically every chapter. If you are one to think critically about how to create a more egalitarian society, this biography is for you.

Notably, the author doesn’t forgive Sumner for his faults, some of which are significant and disappointing, but he rightly venerates him for being a force for profound good in the nation’s history.

Here’s my biggest takeaway: In 1854, Sumner and his allies looked to be on the wrong side of an unstoppable pro-slavery force… and yet by 1865 they had won their greatest fight and looked poised to create a new permanent order... and yet by 1876 their moment was fully over and their legacies seemingly complete... and yet arguably Sumner’s most important achievement (at least aside from his role in ending slavery) came 90 years after he died.

You really never know what’s next, which is all the more reason to keep fighting.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know how long Zaakir Tameez spent researching and writing this hefty and illuminating biography but it was time well spent.

Charles Sumner deserves to be known for more than being caned on the Senate floor by an unrepentant slaveholder. His unwavering commitment to abolitionism and his ceaseless advocacy of equal political, social, and civil rights for African Americans were large parts of his very essence, making him both one of the most revered and the most reviled political figures of the mid-19th century.

While it is easy to admire Sumner’s tenacity, determination, and courage, Tameez also draws attention to the senator’s less attractive attributes. He could be pompous, vain, and flattery-seeking. His stubbornness sometimes caused him to make decisions that did not necessarily reflect well on him, especially when he endorsed Horace Greeley’s 1872 presidential candidacy against President Ulysses S. Grant.

In examining Sumner’s personal life, Tameez explores the sadness and loneliness that beset him, as well as the lifelong pain and medical conditions he suffered as a result of the brutal caning that almost killed him.

This is biography at its best. Tameez has done an admirable job of bringing Sumner to life, of laying out his legacy, and of bringing to us a man in all of his human dimensions. I feel that I really got to know Charles Sumner and I’m glad that I did so.

[Jonathan Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance reader copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review on my Goodreads page. This book is due out on June 3, 2025.

Ask someone what they know about Charles Sumner, and if they know anything at all, it’s probably that he was the senator brutally attacked on the Senate floor in the tense years leading up to the Civil War. But what most don’t know is far more compelling.

Few remember that Sumner was so revered at the time of his death that he became the first person to lie in honor on the Lincoln catafalque. Fewer still know that he was among the small group who held President Lincoln’s hand as he died. Long before Brown v. Board of Education, Sumner was championing racial integration. A century after he introduced it, one of his bills became the foundation for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I learned these details and so much more reading this book.

This biography is both timely and long overdue. Sumner—a towering figure in his time—has largely been forgotten by history. This book corrects that. Although it’s a lengthy read, it’s meticulously researched and richly detailed, offering fresh insights into a man who deserves far more recognition. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the Civil War era or the roots of America’s long struggle for civil rights.

[Mark Mears · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Sumner, Conscience of a Nation

By Zaakir Tameez

Many of us know the story of Senator Charles Sumner being beaten nearly to death by an enraged Confederate Congressman, Preston Brooks, with a cane while trapped at his desk. Some may even know that it would be Brooks who died not long after of natural causes.
I had always wanted to know more about Sumner, an avowed abolitionist. Mr. Tameez certainly delivered on that quarter, telling a complete story of Sumner’s upbringing and unusual rise to prominence in the Senate. You will find what appears to be a frank and thoughtful account of Sumner’s steadfast civil rights efforts and his personal foibles. He was apparently prone to emotional outbursts.
In closing the book, Mr. Tameez brings his impartiality into question as he editorializes about civil rights long after Sumner’s passing, claiming that America is still segregated in 2025. Of course, such a statement makes one wonder about the accuracy of the rest of the book. Mr. Tameez used “historians” as references without naming them more than once, leaving the reader to wonder why.
Still, the book is enlightening in its descriptions of political life in the latter 19th century, including shifting loyalties and legislative maneuvering which would make modern politicians blush. I enjoyed the book.

[Firetruckmama · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, for which I thank them.

“Charles Sumner” is a non-fiction biography by Zaakir Tameez. It’s very obvious from the beginning of this book that Mr. Tameez has done his research about Sumner. If like me you only know Sumner from being hit with a cane in the Senate, be prepared to learn a LOT more about the man. Sumner is, I think, a complex person. This book delves into Sumner’s past - from Revolutionary fighter Jeb Sumner and his father Pickney Sumner. It discusses how Sumner was a second year Harvard Law student - and had an excellent teacher, who remained on the Supreme Court while teaching. It also discusses Sumner’s beliefs about the Declaration of Independence and Constitution - how those words should be applied to everyone. Sumner was one of the leaders for civil rights for Blacks, something that I know I didn’t learn in my US history classes. This isn’t an easy read - at times the writing is rather dense and bordering on dry - but Mr. Tameez has a lot to present. I found the organization of information good (the book does flow well). If you like history, want to know more about early civil rights advocates, or wish to know more about Sumner, I’d give this book a strong recommendation.

[Richard]

I enjoyed this biography immensely. Tameez has crafted a great narrative that acknowledges Sumner’s less appealing qualities - greatest of these his vanity and self righteousness - while never failing to make clear Sumner’s unique place in American history as it’s first national elected leader dedicated to making the US a true multiracial democracy. Regardless of his endorsement of Greeley in 1872’s presidential election - Sumner always remained true to his expansive vision of American democracy. How sad indeed that the reach of Sumner’s vision exceeded his grasp. How tragic that in the age of MAGA and the Robert’s Court this remains true even today. It seems we are doomed as Americans to be endlessly arrayed in two opposing camps: on one side those who embrace the Declaration’s clarion call for freedom AND equality and, on the other, those who have little time or patience with such ideals, choosing instead to fetishize their own selfishness and call it freedom.

I’ll take Sumner’s article of faith that our Constitution “ is not mean, stingy, and pettifogging.” I hope Tameez’s book inspires others to do the same.

[Anne Wick · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best biographies I've ever read and I've read quite a few. The presentation was interesting and well paced. I really appreciated the legal philosophies, their backgrounds and explanations.

I also enjoyed learning how Sumner created or influenced entities we somewhat take for granted today such as the U.S. Code.

I appreciated reading about Sumner's life and work including how he moved our nation forward during a period when we may have ceased to exist. He saw what was necessary for us to win the Civil War, pushed to make it happen and then worked to fully fulfill the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. He worked tirelessly to help create a better democracy (although he did not work to advance women's suffrage) and unfortunately he wasn't always successful. He saw the future with true clarity and sadly he accurately predicted what would happen if his safeguard measures failed.

It was a delight learning more about Sumner, a highly principled man who fought tirelessly for what he believed was right, freedom and equality.

[James Weddell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book through Jamelle Bouie's interview with the author in the NYT. It alerted me to Sumner's unusual experience for a white 19th century politician of growing up in an antebellum freed black community and his subsequent lifelong battle, with black compatriots, for equal rights. Virtuous as Sumner's public stands were, he appears to have been an unpleasant vainglorious individual whose egotism made him increasingly isolated. In many ways, it's a sad story. If Sumner is remembered at all, it is primarily for his victimhood under Brook's cane and not for the pathway to the future he attempted to illuminate during his legal & political career. I recently acquired Zenith's massive biography of Pessoa and so could be charged with hypocrisy, but ever since Holroyd's biography of Lytton Strachey and Ellman's of James Joyce biographies to be considered adequate must be massive. It's a trend I can't fully embrace.