Preston Smith Brooks (August 5, 1819 – January 27, 1857) was an American slaver, politician, and member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina, serving as a member of the Democratic Party from 1853 until his resignation in July 1856 and again from August 1856 until his death.[1]

He is most remembered for his May 22, 1856, attack upon abolitionist and Republican Senator Charles Sumner, whom he beat nearly to death with a cane on the floor of the United States Senate for that.