Full Bio: The Early Life of Senator Charles Sumner

All Of It with Alison Stewart | Jun 30, 2025

For this month's installment of Full Bio, we learn about the life of Senator Charles Sumner with Zaakir Tameez, author of the new biography Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation. Sumner was a fierce abolitionist and statesman from Massachusetts who was a pivotal advisor to President Lincoln and an influential force during the Civil War. In today's installment, we learn about Sumner's upbringing in a diverse neighborhood in Boston, and how that experience led him to become an abolitionist.

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