What did Southern Senator Preston Brooks do to the abolitionist senator Charles Sumner in 1857? How did people in the South react to this?

Reaction to Senator Charles Sumner in 1857:

This event happened on May 22, 1856. Two days before which Charles Sumner had given a speech against slaveholders and criticizing then heavily publicly, which also included a relative of Brooks.

So, taking this as an insult, Preston Brooks in retaliation beat Sumner with a Walking cane, and this incident significantly contributed to the country's polarization toward the issue of slavery. There was a lot violence that followed the event and was eventually one of the reasons for the American Civil War.