Samuel Wakefield (died 1883) was a postmaster, tax collector, school official, and state legislator in Louisiana.
He represented
Iberia Parish
Iberia Parish (french: Paroisse de l'Ibérie, es, Parroquia de Iberia) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 69,929; the parish seat is New Iberia.
The parish was formed in 1868 du ...
in the
Louisiana Senate
The Louisiana State Senate (french: Sénat de Louisiane) is the upper house of the state legislature of Louisiana. All senators serve four-year terms and are assigned to multiple committees.
Composition
The Louisiana State Senate is composed ...
from 1877 to 1879. He was documented as being
mulatto
(, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese ...
, literate, and having worked as a cooper and tax collector.
[Freedom's Lawmakers by ]Eric Foner
Eric Foner (; born February 7, 1943) is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African-American biography, the American Civil War, Reconst ...
Louisiana State University Press (1996) page 219 He was born in
St. Martin Parish, Louisiana. He had a wife and seven children.
He was deposed from office during the term of governor
Francis T. Nicholls. His seat passed to George Wailles.
[
In 1879, his daughter Emma Wakefield-Paillet was the first black woman to qualify as a doctor in Louisiana.][ An older child, Adolph J. Wakefield, served as ]Clerk of Court
A court clerk (British English: clerk to the court or clerk of the court ; American English: clerk of the court or clerk of court ) is an officer of the court whose responsibilities include maintaining records of a court, administer oaths to witn ...
for Iberia Parish between 1884 and 1888, the first African American to do so. On January 25, 1889, a younger son, also named Samuel Wakefield, was attacked and lynched
Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...
by a mob while in the jail at New Iberia
New Iberia (french: La Nouvelle-Ibérie; es, Nueva Iberia) is the largest city in and parish seat of Iberia Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The city of New Iberia is located approximately southeast of Lafayette, and forms part of the Laf ...
. At the time, he was in police custody, being held following the death of his employer by gunshot, apparently inflicted by the junior Wakefield, in a confrontation between the two. The family home was terrorized by a mob of angry white citizens.