Samuel Wakefield

Samuel Wakefield (c. 1834–1883), was an American postmaster, tax collector, school official, and state legislator in Louisiana. During the Reconstruction era, he represented Iberia Parish in the Louisiana Senate.

Biography
Samuel Wakefield was born c. 1834, in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana. He was documented as being mulatto, literate, and having worked as a cooper and tax collector. In 1874, he served as the tax collector, elected by the Republicans.

Wakefield represented Iberia Parish in the Louisiana Senate, from 1877 to 1879. He was deposed from office during the term of governor Francis T. Nicholls, and his seat was passed to George Wailles.

He was married to Amelia Valentine, and they had seven children. In 1879, his daughter Emma Wakefield-Paillet was the first black woman to qualify as a physician in Louisiana. An older child, Adolph J. Wakefield, served as Clerk of Court for Iberia Parish, between 1884 and 1888; and the first African American to do so.

On January 25, 1889, a younger son, also named Samuel Wakefield Jr., was attacked and lynched by a mob while in the jail at New Iberia. 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. Samuel Wakefield Sr. committed suicide by firearm mere days later on February 1, 1889, in New Iberia. The family fled not long after, and settled in New Orleans.