SAMPSON, John Patterson, author, born in Wilmington, North Carolina, 13 August, 1837. He is of mixed Scottish and African descent, was graduated at Comer's college, Boston, Massachusetts, in 1856, was for some time a teacher in New York city, and during the civil war conducted a journal in Cincinnati, Ohio, called the " Colored Citizen," in which he advocated the enlistment of negroes in the National army. In 1865 he was appointed assessor at Wilmington, North Carolina, and was superintendent of the Preedmen's school in 1866. In 1868-'9 he attended the Western theological school at Alleghany, Pennsylvania He took an active part in reconstruction, was a member of the North Carolina constitutional convention, was. nominated by the Republicans for both the legislature and congress, and for fifteen years held various posts under the state and United States governments. After completing his studies at the National law university, Washington, D. C., he was admitted to the bar of the United States supreme court in 1873. In 1882 he relinquished the practice of law, and entered the ministry of the African Methodist Episcopal church. He was appointed to a church near Trenton, New Jersey, was chosen chaplain of the state senate, and afterward took charge of a congregation at Trenton. He received the degree of D. D. from Wilberforce university, Ohio, in 1888. He was a delegate to the general conference in 1888, is known as a lecturer on social and scientific subjects, and has published in book-form "Common-sense Physiology "(Hampton, Virginia, 1880) ; "The Disappointed Bride" (1883) ; "Temperament and Phrenology of Mixed Races" (Trenton, 1884); "Jolly People" (Hampton, 1886); and "Illustrations in Theology" (1888).