Samuel Doak (1749–1830) was an American Presbyterian clergyman, Calvinist educator, and a former slave owner in the early movement in the United States for the abolition of slavery.
[1] He grew up on a frontier farm and began his education with Robert Alexander, who later founded the Academy of Liberty Hall (now Washington and Lee University).
Doak, during this same time in 1780, regularly preached to settlers at the Big Spring at Greeneville, Tennessee in present-day Greene County.
The school that Doak had constructed at his Salem Presbyterian Church during 1780 was later chartered as St. Martin's Academy in 1783.
Doak was awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree for his tireless efforts at promoting Presbyterianism and education.