Samuel Wakefield

Samuel Wakefield (–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 , 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. The school was destroyed by a tornado in 1874. In 1879, his daughter Emma Wakefield-Paillet was the first black woman to qualify as a physician in Louisiana. Following the event, the Wakefield family home was terrorized by a mob of angry white citizens. On January 25, 1889, Samuel Wakefield Jr. was attacked and lynched by a mob while in the jail at New Iberia.

Samuel Wakefield Sr. committed suicide by firearm days later on February 1, 1889, in New Iberia. The family fled not long after, and settled in New Orleans.