The Slave Wall was built in 1765 by Pomp, a slave owned by Thomas Brooks, as a decorative entrance to Brooks's house. The site was part of the Brooks family estate, first occupied in 1679 and once comprising about 400 acres. The first African-Americans arrived in Medford as slaves in February 1638, and by 1765 the town had 49 slaves, many connected to the Triangle Trade; only Boston and Cambridge had larger slave populations. Medford nonetheless became an early center of anti-slavery activity, and in 1783 Massachusetts became the first state to abolish slavery. Today the Slave Wall and the Slave Quarters at the Royall House are the only remaining physical reminders of slavery in Medford, and after emancipation many of the formerly enslaved settled in West Medford, now considered among the oldest continuous African-American communities in the United States.
