Medford’s Salem Street Burying Ground was used as early as 1683. It contains the remains of notable early settlers from the city’s history including Massachusetts Governor John Brooks, Minuteman Captain Isaac Hall, prominent Medford citizen Captain Peter Tufts, and Revolutionary War heroine Sarah Bradlee Fulton. The Burying Ground was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

In June 2019, with support from a Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area Partnership Grant and working with the City of Medford, Medford Public School students Jenny Lu, Joe Schmidt, Jasmine Hagbourne, and Liam Brady placed and dedicated a memorial in the Salem Street Burying Ground, acknowledging Medford’s connection to slavery and honoring the lives of more than fifty enslaved people buried in a corner without recognition. Inscription reads:

“In the southwest corner of the ground the slaves were buried.”
(Medford Historical Society)

Today and always
we honor the enslaved
people buried here
and elsewhere in
unmarked graves.
Dedicated June 8, 2019