Thanks so much to Charlie Hunt and Jaci Kettler, hosts of the Scandalized podcast, for sharing time with HPPR listeners to talk more about their episode that covers a pivotal event in Kansas history.
Click the link at the top of this page to hear our full interview with Charlie and Jaci. To hear the full episode, click here. Enjoy this fascinating deep dive into the mid 1800s and the conversations – and violence – surrounding the dawn of Kansas statehood.
Without giving too many spoilers for those unfamiliar with the event, here’s something that I found fascinating about this incident (from Wikipedia):
More than a million copies of Sumner's "Crime against Kansas" speech were distributed. Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked, "I do not see how a barbarous community and a civilised community can constitute one state. I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom." Conversely, Brooks was praised by Southern newspapers. The Richmond Enquirer editorialized that Sumner should be caned "every morning" and Southerners sent Brooks hundreds of new canes in endorsement of his assault. Southern lawmakers made rings out of the cane's remains, which they wore on neck chains to show solidarity with Brooks.
ABOUT THE PODCAST (from their website): In short, Scandalized is "a podcast of political impropriety." In each episode, our savvy hosts Charlie Hunt and Jaci Kettler (who are both political scientists) unpack a scandal from American history: the story, its scandalous details, the political meaning and motivations behind the act. What can political science teach us about what happened? How has the scandal and its aftermath changed American politics? And what on earth were these politicians thinking?
ABOUT THE EPISODE (from their website): Episode 3: Blood on the Senate Floor (Oct 14, 2024) - This week on Scandalized, we go back to the 1850s, and things get violent. A U.S. Senator clings to life after being beaten in the halls of Congress by one of his colleagues. The caning of Senator Charles Sumner; its causes, its consequences and its familiar political divisions.
