This photograph of Charles Sumner was taken c. 1855, during his first term in the U.S. Senate. As a young abolitionist lawyer in 1843, he formed an early friendship with his Boston neighbor Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In the following decade, after being beaten nearly to death on the Senate floor by a pro-slavery congressman, he worked with Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to build support for the 13th Amendment banning slavery. He prioritized Black men’s voting rights but was always sympathetic to women’s suffrage.
Source photograph: Boston Public Library, Print Department.
Date: c. 1855
This photograph of Charles Sumner was taken c. 1855, during his first term in the U.S. Senate. As a young abolitionist lawyer in 1843, he formed an early friendship with his Boston neighbor Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In the following decade, after being beaten nearly to death on the Senate floor by a pro-slavery congressman, he worked with Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to build support for the 13th Amendment banning slavery. He prioritized Black men’s voting rights but was always sympathetic to women’s suffrage.
Source photograph: Boston Public Library, Print Department.
Date: c. 1855