Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To free from slavery or bondage; emancipate.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To release from slavery; liberate from personal bondage or servitude; set free, as a slave; emancipate.
- Synonyms Enfranchise, Liberate, etc. See
emancipate .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To release from slavery; to liberate from personal bondage or servitude; to free, as a slave.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
release fromslavery , tofree .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb free from slavery or servitude
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It is evident, that others cannot "manumit" for them.
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society
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From 1782 until 1806, any slaveholder in Virginia could manumit slaves for any reason, either in his will or while still living, by any other instrument in writing, under his or her hand and seal.
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After the Revolution, at the behest of petitions from the Quakers and the Methodists, the Virginia state government passed a very liberal manumission law in 1782 I mean liberal towards white slave-holders who wanted to manumit; freed blacks still suffered under a racial police state.
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The freeing of enslaved persons – manumission – was not regulated by statute in South Carolina until 1712, when the colonial legislature decreed that slaveholders or the colonial governor or provincial council could manumit enslaved persons for good cause.
History of American Women Maggiemac 2008
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When this is done, go down with me to the slave market and sell me as thou boughtest me to whoso will buy me with my blemish; but thou shalt not manumit me, for I have no handicraft whereby to gain my living; 99 and this my demand is a matter of law which the doctors have laid down in the Chapter of Emancipation.
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Under Virginian colonial law, a slaveholder could manumit slaves by a special act of the legislature.
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Or an insolvent master might manumit his slaves to thwart his creditors.
A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985
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Or an insolvent master might manumit his slaves to thwart his creditors.
A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985
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Or an insolvent master might manumit his slaves to thwart his creditors.
A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985
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Even if a man wishes to manumit one of his slaves, and is given permission to do so, the freed slave is required to leave the colony within a short time-or he may be captured and enslaved by anyone who chooses to take him.
Drums of Autumn Gabaldon, Diana 1997
bilby commented on the word manumit
"The prime reason, I suspect, will be that we don't need any liberator to manumit our 'corporate slaves' because we've never had any."
- Victor Navasky, 'Time is money', The Nation, 17 July 1989.
March 5, 2009