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wars, and such strangers as willingly sell themselves, or are sold to us. Commenting on this article, Palfrey, in his History of New England, says: Born of slave mother is not mentioned as cause of slavery; and in fact no person was ever born into legal slavery in Massachusetts. In the Constitution of Massachusetts, adopted in 1780, it is declared that all men are born free and equal. This was the doom of slavery; and the interpretation of this clause in the case of Commonwealth v. Jennison settled finally the freedom of the negro in this State. In proportion to its size Medford seems to have had a large number of slaves. Out of 114 towns returning the number of negro slaves Medford ranks 12th. In 1755 the number of slaves sixteen years old and upwards was 34, of whom 27 were males. There was no return from Charlestown; but the only other town in Middlesex county returning a larger number was Cambridge, which reported a total of 56. One of the most valuable bits of st