Sam Staples (town constable)
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Sam Staples was the town constable in Concord, Massachusetts and friend of Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau intentionally did not pay his taxes because the revenues were used to finance the Mexican-American War and to enforce slavery laws. Since Thoreau refused to pay, Sam Staples was required to take his friend to jail. The same evening someone paid the taxes (possibly Staples himself or Thoreau's aunt Maria). Thoreau argued that since he was not the one who had paid the taxes he still deserved to be in jail.
The night he spent in jail prompted Henry to write his famous essay, On the duty of Civil Disobedience, 1849.
