- Date:
- 1856
- Original Format:
- Fine Print Illustration
- Item#:
- 1850.0040
"Arguments of the Chivalry"
This illustration by Winslow Homer depicts the brutal caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks, a Congressman from South Carolina. Brooks was committed to the southern code of chivalry that sanctioned the use of violence to avenge a personal insult. Sumner gave a speech insulting slavery and Brooks' cousin Senator Andrew Pickens Butler.