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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855. (ed. Charles Brooks), Chapter 12: crimes and Punishments. (search)
alism with a vengeance. The custom of whipping did not cease in Medford till 1790! Slavery. Our fathers held slaves in Medford. There are persons now living among us who remember slaves in their family. They were treated, generally, much after the manner of children. Africans were brought to this colony and sold among us, for the first time, Feb. 26, 1638. In 1637, Captain William Pierce was employed to carry Pequot captives and sell them in the West Indies! On his return from Tortugas, he brought home a cargo of cotton, tobacco, salt, and negroes ! Slavery was thus introduced as early as 1638; but, in 1645, the General Court passed this noble, this truly Christian, order:-- The General Court, conceiving themselves bound by the first opportunity to bear witness against the heinous and crying sin of man-stealing, as also to prescribe such timely redress for what is past, and such a law for the future, as may sufficiently deter all others belonging to us to have to do in