{{Short description|American politician, minister, restaurateur (c. 1804–1908)}} {{Distinguish|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 | term_start1 = 1873 | term_end1 = 1873 | party = Republican<ref>{{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}}</ref> and Democrat | spouse = Catherine Armstead (m. ?–1891; her death),<br /> 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)<ref name="Brock-2009" /><ref name="The Evansville Journal-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}}</ref> was an American politician, Methodist minister, restaurateur, and was formerly enslaved.<ref name="Brock-2009">{{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}}</ref> 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'''.<ref name="Brock-2009" />

== 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.<ref name="Brock-2009" /> He learned to read and write early in life, which was unusual for enslaved people.<ref name="Brock-2009" /> In 1858, Armstead was brought to Shreveport, Louisiana by Ball.<ref name="Brock-2009" /> He worked as a minister for slaves at the First Methodist Episcopal Church (now the First Methodist Church) in Shreveport, Louisiana.<ref name="Brock-2009" />

After the American Civil War ended in 1865, he changed his name to Joseph Samuel Armstead.<ref name="Brock-2009" /> 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.<ref name="Brock-2009" /> 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.<ref name="Brock-2009" /><ref>{{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}}</ref>

Armstead was elected in 1870 to the Louisiana House of Representatives representing Caddo Parish in the 1st district, where he remained for one year.<ref name="Brock-2009" /> In the 1870s it was not uncommon for African Americans to hold elected office in Louisiana.<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

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.<ref name="Brock-2009" /><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> Armstead was forced from his office sometime in 1873.<ref name="Brock-2009" />

He died on October 4, 1908, in his home in Shreveport.<ref name="The Evansville Journal-1908" /> In his obituary in the newspapers claimed he was 104 years old, and he couldn't read or write.<ref name="The Evansville Journal-1908" />

== Personal life == Armstead married twice. His first wife, Catherine Armstead ({{Circa|1820}}–1891), worked as a cook at the family restaurant.<ref name="Brock-2009" /> They had children, but its unclear how many.

His second wife, Ann Brown, was some 40 years his junior. They married in 1893.<ref name="Brock-2009" /> They lived at 101 Louisiana Street in Shreveport.<ref name="Brock-2009" />

==See also== *Francis E. Dumas

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstead, Samuel}} Category:1800s births Category:Date of birth uncertain Category:1908 deaths 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 Category:Politicians from Shreveport, Louisiana Category:African-American history of Louisiana