Samuel Armstead
{{Short description|American politician, minister, restaurateur (c. 1804–1908)}}
{{Not to be confused|Samuel G. Armistead}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Samuel Armstead
| birth_name = Samuel Ball
| death_date = October 4, 1908
| birth_date = c. 1804
| birth_place = West Virginia, U.S.
| death_place = Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, U.S.
| occupation = Politician, Methodist minister, restaurateur
| office = Louisiana House of Representatives, 1st District
| term_start = 1870
| term_end = 1871
| office1 = Secretary of State of Louisiana
| termstart1 = 1873
| termend1 = 1873
| party = Republican{{Cite news |date=1871-08-23 |title=By Telegraph: Republicans of Caddo |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/new-orleans-republican-by-telegraph-rep/172297693/ |access-date=2025-05-14 |work=New Orleans Republican |pages=1 |via=Newspapers.com}} and Democrat
| spouse = Catherine Armstead (m. ?–1891; her death),
Ann Brown (m. 1893–1908; death)
| resting_place = Star Cemetery, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, U.S.
| image = Samuel Armstead.png
| caption = Samuel Armstead (c. 1871)
}}
Samuel Armstead (né Samuel Ball; {{Circa|1804}}–October 4, 1908){{Cite news |date=October 7, 1908 |title=Negro Preacher Couldn't Write |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-evansville-journal-negro-preacher-co/172297431/ |access-date=2025-05-13 |work=The Evansville Journal |pages=5 |via=Newspapers.com}} was an American politician, Methodist minister, restaurateur, and was formerly enslaved.{{Cite book |last=Brock |first=Eric J. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=68t2CQAAQBAJ&dq=samuel+armstead+louisiana&pg=PT34 |title=Shreveport Chronicles: Profiles From Louisiana's Port City |year=2009 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=9781625843043 |pages=29, 34 |chapter=Samuel Armstead, Reconstruction-Era, Secretary of State |via=Google Books}} An African American, he served in the Louisiana House of Representatives, established a church, and started a school in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. He was also known as Joseph Samuel Armstead, and Sam Armstead.
Life and career
Born as Samuel Ball in {{Circa|1804}}, in West Virginia, Samuel Armstead was Black. At the time of his birth he was owned by Dr. William Ball. He learned to read and write early in life, which was unusual for enslaved people. In 1858, Armstead was brought to Shreveport, Louisiana by Ball. He worked as a minister for slaves at the First Methodist Episcopal Church (now the First Methodist Church) in Shreveport, Louisiana.
After the American Civil War ended in 1865, he changed his name to Joseph Samuel Armstead. He founded the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (now the St. Paul United Methodist Church) in 1865, and led some 90 formerly enslaved parishioners that had attended his sermons the First Methodist Episcopal Church. That same year he also founded the St. Paul Christian School of the Bottoms, also known as Christian Bottom School, which was the first African American school for children and illiterate adults in Shreveport.{{Cite web |last=Parker |first=Janis |date=2024-12-09 |title=Pastors, please read to your congregations |url=https://storymaps.com/stories/4de2e24dd5244da58027900a2bd326fe |access-date=2025-05-14 |website=StoryMaps |language=en}}
Armstead was elected in 1870 to the Louisiana House of Representatives representing Caddo Parish in the 1st district, where he remained for one year. In the 1870s it was not uncommon for African Americans to hold elected office in Louisiana.{{Cite journal |author=Perkins, A. E. |year=1929 |title=Some Negro Officers and Legislators in Louisiana |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2714198 |journal=The Journal of Negro History |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=523–528 |doi=10.2307/2714198 |jstor=2714198 |url-access=subscription }}
He was elected as Secretary of State of Louisiana in 1872, under the Democratic John McEnery ticket, and served the following year under Republican Gov. P. B. S. Pinchback.{{Cite web |last=Grant |first=US President (1869–1877) |date=February 25, 1873 |title=Condition of Affairs in Louisiana: Message from the President of the United States, in Answer to a Resolution of the House, of December 16 Lase, Relative to the Condition of Affairs in Louisiana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sbUTAAAAYAAJ&dq=samuel+armstead+louisiana&pg=PA1006 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Google Books}}{{Cite news |date=1873-10-01 |title=Distressing Condition of Shreveport |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-picayune-distressing-condition/172330211/ |access-date=2025-05-14 |work=The Times-Picayune |pages=8 |via=Newspapers.com}} Armstead was forced from his office sometime in 1873.
He died on October 4, 1908, in his home in Shreveport. In his obituary in the newspapers claimed he was 104 years old, and he couldn't read or write.
Personal life
See also
References
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Category:Date of birth uncertain
Category:19th-century African-American businesspeople
Category:19th-century American businesspeople
Category:19th-century American Methodist ministers
Category:19th-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature
Category:American former slaves
Category:American restaurateurs