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This history of Deerfield, Massachusetts, was written c.1840 by Pliny Arms. It contains an account of the town during and after the American Revolution. Deerfield was evenly divided between Whigs and Tories which caused the actions of one town meeting to be overturned by the next. Arms also includes the story of some slaves in Deerfield who set out to have a frolic around the time of the Revolution. They were caught and being slaves, the owners could do with them as they wished. Major Catlin was chosen to whip them. Arms goes on to say that slavery was abolished in Massachusetts with the adoption of the state constitution in 1780. : Although the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution declared that "all men are born free and equal", it took many years for the institution of slavery to die out in this state.