freedman

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a man who has been released from slavery, especially when his legal status is distinguished from that of a freeborn person

   The Roman freedman could conduct business but remained linked by obligations to his former owner.

2. 2
   noun

   in US history, an emancipated Black person in the period during and after the Civil War

   The freedman registered to vote during Reconstruction despite threats from former slaveholders.

A native compound of freed, the past participle of free, + man. English has long used it as a legal and historical status term for a man released from slavery, often in contrast with freeborn. In US history its plural, freedmen, was also used collectively for people emancipated from slavery.

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