freedwomen
Liberated female bondspeople
Freedwomen is the plural of freedwoman—a woman released from slavery or bondage.
The term appears most often in discussions of the American post-Civil War era, when formerly enslaved people navigated new legal and social realities: Freedwomen faced both racial discrimination and the limitations imposed on all women of the period.
Formal freeing of enslaved
- abolitionFormal discontinuation of practice
- proclamationFormal public announcement
- reconstructionRebuilding after destruction
- self-liberationFreeing oneself from oppression
contraband · fugitive · bondage · enslavement · plantation · slaveholder · master · mistress
- ex-slaveOne formerly held captive
- coloredHaving pigment applied
- negroBlack, in Romance languages
- black womenFemales of African ancestry
mothers · daughters · wives · community · family · kinship · reunion · surname
Opponent of human bondage
- suffrageRight to cast ballots
- temperanceHabitual moderation in behavior
- upliftRaise emotionally or physically
- educationSystematic development of mind
literacy · church · congregation · organizing · advocacy · lecturer · orator · petition
Paid household labor
- laundressWoman who washes clothes
- seamstressOne who stitches garments
- cookHeat food for eating
- midwifeChildbirth assistance professional
nurse · field work · sharecropping · tenant farming · wages · contract · employer · self-employment
Rebuilding after destruction
- apprenticeshipLearning trade through employment
- indentureFormal binding contract
- segregationForced separation by group
- violenceHarmful physical force
intimidation · nightriders · displacement · migration · settlement · homesteading · land grant · education
manumission
Formal freeing of enslaved
- abolitionFormal discontinuation of practice
- proclamationFormal public announcement
- reconstructionRebuilding after destruction
self-liberation · contraband · fugitive · bondage · enslavement · plantation · slaveholder · master · mistress · chattel
formerly enslaved
black women · mothers · daughters · wives · community · family · kinship · reunion · surname · identity
abolitionist
Opponent of human bondage
- suffrageRight to cast ballots
- temperanceHabitual moderation in behavior
- upliftRaise emotionally or physically
education · literacy · church · congregation · organizing · advocacy · lecturer · orator · petition · reform
domestic service
Paid household labor
- laundressWoman who washes clothes
- seamstressOne who stitches garments
- cookHeat food for eating
midwife · nurse · field work · sharecropping · tenant farming · wages · contract · employer · self-employment · market
reconstruction
Rebuilding after destruction
- apprenticeshipLearning trade through employment
- indentureFormal binding contract
- segregationForced separation by group
violence · intimidation · nightriders · displacement · migration · settlement · homesteading · land grant · education · church
- Roman societypatrician, patricians, plebeian, plebeians, citizen
- Roman WomenAntonia, Aurelia, Cornelia, Agrippina, Julia
- Roman social classesplebeians, patrons, clients, Roman citizens
- frontier peoplepioneers, settlers, frontiersmen, trappers, fur traders
freedwomenbondswomen
Women in forced servitude
chattel · captives · bondwomen · indentured servants · serfs
freedwomenslaveholders
Owners of enslaved people