A Quiet Country Town:
18th Century Medford
Medford was a small, pleasant hamlet at the beginning of the eighteenth century with a population of fewer than 230 people. By the end of the century 1,114 persons were counted in the town in the national census of that year. This meant that there were five people in 1800 for every one in 1700. While a small increase by today's standards, to a resident of that time, it must have seemed like a population explosion.
Northern slavery was little better than Southern slavery. Medford selectmen in 1734 voted that "all Negro, Indian and mulatto servants that are found abroad without leave and not on their master's business shall be taken up and whipped ten stripes on their naked body by any freeholder of the town, and be carried to their respective masters, and said masters shall be obligated to pay the sume of 2s.,6d in money to said person that shall do so."
Not all residents in the town were free. Blacks, Indians, and mulatto servants were held in slavery. In a census of Negro slaves in Massachusetts Bay in 1755, there were thirty-four slaves over the age of sixteen living in Medford. Twenty-seven were men and seven were women. By 1764-65 the slave population in Medford had increased to forty-nine.
During most of this century there were slaves in Medford until slavery was finally outlawed in 1787 in the case of Commonwealth v. Jennison. Today there are still two visible remnants of Medford slavery. On Grove Street stands the "slave wall," a brick wall capped with thin stone slabs and a granite post at the southern end. Pomp, a black slave of Thomas Brooks, is said to have built it around 1765. And in the yard of the Royall House stand the Old Slave Quarters.
Medford is an historic suburban city located on the Mystic River with several small streams that provided waterpower for early industries. Originally the site of estates owned by Governors Craddock and Winthrop, Medford became a town in 1695 and a city in 1892. The city's colonial prosperity was based on being a tidewater seaport with shipbuilding and distilling, and Medford was part of the triangle trade.
There was a significant slave population. Shipbuilding was begun by Thatcher Magoun, using lumber harvested from the Fells and later from New Hampshire, which came down on the Middlesex Canal. At its peak in 1855, Magoun's shipyard employed 1,000 men. Immigrant populations, mostly Irish, were also employed in the brick yards and in quarrying Medford granite.
After the decline of the shipbuilding industry, printed cloth, carpets, linseed oil, hats and rum became the major products of the city, as did education when Tufts University was founded in 1852. Fueled by its industrial prosperity, Medford grew quickly; between 1870 and 1910 the city doubled in population every 20 years. Residents manufactured shoe-making machines, chemicals, covered buttons and brass soda fountains.
The city retains a rich architectural heritage which includes the nationally important Isaac Royall estate as well as Federal, Greek revival and Victorian buildings. The earliest homes remaining in the community are the Peter Tufts House of 1678 and the Jonathan Wade House of 1689, but at least one outstanding example of each architectural period remains. There are now many suburban neighborhoods in Medford resulting from the rapid and dense development which followed the first world war.
It is located in eastern Massachusetts, bordered by Everett and Malden on the east, Stoneham on the north, Somerville on the south, Arlington on the west, and Winchester on the northwest. Medford is 5 miles northwest of Boston, 9 miles southwest of Lynn, 20 miles south of Lowell, and 223 miles from New York City.
Narrative compiled by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).
Pomp's Wall
A slave called Pomp built this wall--now known as the "slave wall"--on Grove Street in 1765 for slave owner Thomas Brooks. The wall formed part of a decorative entrance to Brooks' house.
This site was part of the estate of the Brooks family, which was first occupied in 1679 and once included some 400 acres of land. The park behind the slave wall was donated to the City of Medford in 1924 by the Brooks family.
The first African-Americans arrived in Medford as slaves in February 1638. By 1765 Medford's population included 49 slaves, many of whom were tied to the infamous Transatlantic Stave Trade. A portion of the original wall still stands as a testament to Pomp's masonry abilities as well as the efforts of the other unsung individuals who made Medford's prosperity possible.
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| by Maria Dufour |
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| by Maria Dufour |
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