freedom papers
Proof of liberty
Freedom papers were legal documents that proved a Black person's status as free in the antebellum United States.
These papers were essential for free Black Americans, who without them risked being kidnapped into slavery or arrested as fugitives.
They typically included physical descriptions, signatures of white witnesses or officials, and sometimes a seal.
He never traveled without his freedom papers.
The term also appears as manumission papers, referring specifically to documents granting freedom from enslavement.
- manumissionFormal freeing of enslaved
- certificateFormal written attestation
- birth certificateOfficial record of arrival
- legal documentFormally binding written record
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
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