freedman
Former enslaved person
A freedman is a person who has been released from slavery or bondage.
The term appears most often in historical contexts, particularly regarding formerly enslaved people in the American South after the Civil War: The Freedmen's Bureau helped freedmen transition to free life.
The word emphasizes the change in status—someone who was enslaved but is now free.
Plural: freedmen.
Formal freeing of enslaved
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
- liberationRelease from constraint
- releaseTo let go
- unchainedFreed from restraints
unshackled · slaveholder · bondage · servitude · chattel · abolition · abolitionist · Underground Railroad
Status as state member
- voting rightsEntitlement to elect officials
- suffrageRight to cast ballots
- civil rightsGuaranteed individual legal protections
- equal protectionUniform legal treatment
franchise · dignity · legal status · property rights · marriage rights · education rights · labor rights · political participation
Farm rent in produce
- Radical RepublicansStrict Reconstruction-era congressional bloc
- Fourteenth AmendmentPost-Civil War constitutional addition
- Fifteenth AmendmentProhibited race-based voting denial
- enfranchisementGranting citizenship rights
carpetbagger · scalawag · tenant farming · Jim Crow · poll tax · literacy test · grandfather clause · disenfranchisement
Collective for reciprocal assistance
- benevolent societyGroup organized for charity
- self-helpUnassisted personal development
- literacyAbility to read, write
- educationSystematic development of mind
land ownership · family reunion · community building · self-governance · labor contracts · migration
Farmer paying rent in crops
- tenant farmerOne who leases farmland
- field handAgricultural labor worker
- domestic workerHired help at residence
- artisanSkilled manual tradesperson
craftsman · blacksmith · carpenter · seamstress · landowner · employer · contract labor · self-employment
manumission
Formal freeing of enslaved
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
- liberationRelease from constraint
- releaseTo let go
unchained · unshackled · slaveholder · bondage · servitude · chattel · abolition · abolitionist · Underground Railroad · fugitive
citizenship
Status as state member
- voting rightsEntitlement to elect officials
- suffrageRight to cast ballots
- civil rightsGuaranteed individual legal protections
equal protection · franchise · dignity · legal status · property rights · marriage rights · education rights · labor rights · political participation · jury service
sharecropping
Farm rent in produce
- Radical RepublicansStrict Reconstruction-era congressional bloc
- Fourteenth AmendmentPost-Civil War constitutional addition
- Fifteenth AmendmentProhibited race-based voting denial
enfranchisement · carpetbagger · scalawag · tenant farming · Jim Crow · poll tax · literacy test · grandfather clause · disenfranchisement · segregation
mutual aid society
Collective for reciprocal assistance
- benevolent societyGroup organized for charity
- self-helpUnassisted personal development
- literacyAbility to read, write
education · land ownership · family reunion · community building · self-governance · labor contracts · migration
sharecropper
Farmer paying rent in crops
- tenant farmerOne who leases farmland
- field handAgricultural labor worker
- domestic workerHired help at residence
artisan · craftsman · blacksmith · carpenter · seamstress · landowner · employer · contract labor · self-employment · economic independence
- social ranksking, queen, emperor, empress, noble
- Abolitionismabolitionists, abolitionist movement, anti-slavery, antislavery, abolitionism
- slaverychattel slavery, enslaved, slave, enslavement, slave traders
- Viking WorldNorway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Greenland
- Roman householdfamilia, domus, paterfamilias, materfamilias, pater
- Roman servantsslave, domestic slave, house slave, household manager, doorkeeper
freedmanslaveholder
Owner of enslaved persons
slave owner · slavemaster · master · enslaver · freeborn