freedman
Americannoun
-
freedmen
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of freedman
First recorded in 1595–1605; freed ( def. ) + man
Explanation
An enslaved person who legally gained freedom was once known as a freedman. The term was most popular during and just after the Civil War. Before the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment, a formerly enslaved person was commonly referred to as a "free Black" or "free Negro." Freedman and freedwoman became the preferred terms after the Civil War. During Reconstruction, President Lincoln established a Freedman's Bureau that was intended to help formerly enslaved people find shelter and jobs, learn to read and write, and connect with their scattered family members.
Vocabulary lists containing freedman
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In the afterword to one of her most autobiographical novels, “starring sally j. freedman as herself,” Blume remembered being “curious, imaginative, a worrier” when she was a girl, qualities she clearly has retained.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 21, 2023
The statue of a freedman kneeling before Abraham Lincoln looks wrong to our 21st-century eyes, and Lincoln would have agreed.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 2, 2020
The area around Downsville, Harrison and Asa was home of numerous cotton plantations before the Civil War and freedman communities starting with Reconstruction.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 26, 2018
“We have a right to the land where we are located,” Virginia freedman Bayley Wyat insisted.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
“Queen Daenerys will return to Meereen in her own time in all her might and majesty. Until such time, His Worship King Hizdahr shall—” “He is no king of mine,” a freedman yelled.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
The young man was found dead in a small room near the entrance to the Hall of the Augustales, a civic order of freedmen, a bit like a freemason lodge.
From Salon ● Mar. 4, 2025
Each tribe also has a unique history with freedmen, whose rights were ultimately spelled out in separate treaties with the U.S.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 28, 2023
The 1866 Freedmen’s Bureau Act then expanded upon the prior year’s law, authorizing the Bureau to care for all loyal refugees and freedmen.
From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2023
Sometime after the Emancipation Proclamation, he relocated to Texas, where he worked in potteries formed by other freedmen from Edgefield.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2022
It had taken -three to carry her and her khalasar from Qarth to Asta- por, but that was before she had acquired eight thousand Unsullied, a thousand sellswords, and a vast horde of freedmen.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
