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.

Charles Sumner is a well thought out, carefully researched book that is written by by Zaakir Tameez. While I have done a lot of Civil War reads for personal preference, undergrad and my masters, Charles Sumner is not one that I am well read about. This book focuses a lot on Sumner and his Senate work. He was an abolitionist before the Civil War, and then worked hard to have their rights equal. I really liked the perspective the author took. I felt that the language was appropriate for both historians and lovers of history.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read a copy of this book - all thoughts are my own.

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.

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.

A well written book on a figure that has largely been sidelined in the study of important civil war and reconstruction era figures. This will likely be the definitive biography of Charles Sumner for many years to come; a badge it can wear with distinct pride.

Charles Sumner was a man way before his time. But that did not stop him for fighting for what was right, including a civil rights act that finally came to fruition in 1965.

This is an interesting biography in full comprehension of how important Sumner was to 19th century American, and as an ally to African Americans.

I didn’t know anything about Charles Sumner but this book worked well in introducing the reader to this book. Zaakir Tameez had that element that I was looking for in this type of book and thought the overall research was there when reading. I hope Zaakir Tameez writes more like this as it was really well done.

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.

I 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

I finished reading this on November 29, 2024.