- Charles Sumner (1811-1874) was a United States senator from Massachusetts and a campaigner against slavery. This is a draft of a version of the speech delivered in New York on May 9, 1855, and published that year under the title "The anti-slavery enterprise." Internal evidence indicates that it was to be delivered to a Boston audience, probably on May 15, 1855. The digital collection includes the draft along with the published version (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1855).