20 Hancock St
Boston, MA, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Charles Sumner House

Statement of Significance:

The Charles Sumner House was the residence of one of the most pivotal figures in American politics both before and after the Civil War. Justifiably criticized for his intemperate speech and intolerant views-- a northern equivalent of the ""fire-eating"" secessionists of the south-- he was the most outspoken political opponent of slavery. Entering the Senate in 1851, he is credited with signaling the disaffection with the Compromise of 1S5Q and placing the anti-slavery crusade on a political footing. The brutal assault made upon him in Congress, resulting from his insulting philippics, was one more pivotal event, like John Brown's raids, which emotionally1 polarized the nation and intensified the inevitability- of civil conflict,

Sumner had a large part in the formation of the Republican Party and his published and distributed oration ""The Barbarism of Slavery"" was a prominent propaganda piece in the campaign of 1860. When the Civil War began, he was the first prominent statesman to urge emancipation as a measure to end the war. When the Proclamation was finally issued, no man had done more than him to prepare public sentiment for its approval, With Republican control of the Senate in 1861, Sumner was made chairman of the powerful foreign relations committee rendering a decade of distinguished service in that post. Forging a close' alliance with the administration he successfully suppressed moves in Congress which risked war with Great Britain and France.

Sumner was the earliest progenitor of the extreme doctrine that secession disposed of all rights of the separatist States. A radical Republican, he championed Congressional reconstruction of the South in opposition to the moderate Presidential prescription and probably was the greatest influence in the defeat of Lincoln's proposal. In the Johnson administration he joined with Thaddeus Stevens in the leadership of radical reconstruction intent on securing civil rights for freedmen. He was prominent in the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, his indiscriminate invective earning him justified historical criticism.

Charles Sumner House

The Charles Sumner House is a historic house on Beacon Hill in Boston, Massachusetts. The brick townhouse, built c. 1806, is notable as the home for many years of Charles Sumner (1811–1874), an outspoken and aggressive political opponent of slavery, whose beating on the floor of the United States Senate in 1856 was a defining moment of the pre-American Civil War period. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973.


Description and history
The Sumner is a four-story townhouse, faced in brick, which was built c. 1806. The interior has a typical side hall plan, with a front parlor, behind which are a sitting room and kitchen. Its upper floors have similar arrangements of rooms. The house was Charles Sumner's home for thirty years.

Charles Sumner was born to abolitionist parents, and was educated at Harvard College, where he studied law under Joseph Story. Sumner became politically active in the fight against slavery in the 1840s, when he also gained a reputation as an orator. He helped found the abolitionist Free Soil Party in 1848, under whose banner he won election to the United States Senate in 1851. This marked the beginning of a more vocal and aggressive opposition to slavery in the political halls of Washington, D.C. His searing verbal reprobation of his opponents escalated into violence when he was beaten unconscious on the floor of the Senate by South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks in 1856, an event that emotionally polarized the country. After Sumner's recovery, he returned to the Senate, where he played a leading role as a Radical Republican during the American Civil War, as an advocate of emancipation. After the war he championed civil rights for free slaves during the Reconstruction Era, and played a role in the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.

The house was designated a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.