Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 3.

Several negroes served as soldiers for Medford. In 1780 six out of fourteen men who enlisted were colored. Thomas Revallean gained his freedom, as a soldier. He came to Medford after the war, and his family lived on Cross street. His wife was a pensioner. Two of his grandsons were taken prisoners, and were held as slaves in Texas for two years and a half, during the Civil War.

In 1778, besides the three years men and the militia guarding troops of Convention at Cambridge, Medford had sixteen men in the Continental Army in New York and Rhode Island. The next year , twenty-two.

Seven men, who served for three months in New Jersey, were entirely lost sight of until last October, when an old book and a receipt were discovered at City Hall which gave their names and the amount of bounty paid them. One of them was Hezekiah Blanchard, Jr., the tavern-keeper, who has numerous descendants among the people of Medford.

The Continental money had depreciated to such an alarming degree that those who were fortunate enough to have anything to sell would travel miles to obtain hard money, and refuse to supply their next door neighbors, who had only currency.

Such exorbitant prices were demanded that the authorities established a price-list which should govern all traders. So many people were disinclined to take paper money, that orders were given that those who refused it should be posted as enemies to the country. Poverty made creditors no respecters of persons.

No less a man than Col. John Brooks, when at home on a furlough, was arrested for a family debt, not of his own contracting, and taken to jail at Cambridge. His friends came to his assistance, and he was not allowed to remain over night.