manumit

American  

[man-yuh-mit] / ˌmæn jəˈmɪt /

verb (used with object)

manumitted, manumitting

1. to release from slavery or servitude.

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manumit British  

/ ˌmænjʊˈmɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to free from slavery, servitude, etc; emancipate

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Other Word Forms

• manumitter
  noun
• unmanumitted
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of manumit

1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin manūmittere, earlier manū ēmittere to send away from (one's) hand, i.e., to set free. See manus, emit

Explanation

To manumit is to set free, or to release a slave from slavery. During slavery in the United States, it was rare for a slave owner to manumit his slaves. Manumit comes from a Latin word meaning “set forth from the hand,” which happens when a slave owner frees a slave. The terrible history of slavery includes stories of owners who might manumit a slave as a reward for serving in their stead in the Revolutionary War, or simply to appear benevolent.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

manumit manumitted manumitting

If they were faithful and hardworking, the master would set them free, manumit them, when he died.

From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry

A democratic statesman said to me, long since, that, if he owned the State of Kentucky, he would manumit all the slaves, and be a gainer by the transaction.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 54, April, 1862 by Various

I beg, for the sake of God, that you will manumit this audacious fellow as a propitiation at the tomb of your forefathers, lest he also involve me in calamity.

From The Persian Literature, Comprising The Shah Nameh, The Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan, Volume 2 by James Ross

I have entreated him, for the sake of our unborn child, to manumit me, and he has promised to do it.

From A Romance of the Republic by Lydia Maria Francis Child

In 1819 they had petitioned against being compelled to manumit their slaves in cases where they wished to buy their freedom, but their protests went for nothing.

From The West Indies and the Spanish Main by James Rodway

A comparable process took place in Cuba after the Spanish-American War, when American sugar companies acquired 60% of rural properties across Cuba, reducing independent farmers—largely manumitted slaves and their descendants—to the level of low-wage labor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

Instead he’s manumitted by a combo platter of teen love and Paul Williams ballads.

From Salon ● May 29, 2017

But Tubman had plotted with Kessiah’s husband, who had been manumitted, to free his family.

From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2017

A slave woman and her children were manumitted by her husband, who had probably bought them to set them free.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 17, 2017

Now and then a slave is actually manumitted and removed, and the incident is dwelt upon for months.

From Thoughts on African Colonization by William Lloyd Garrison

“The evidence is pretty strong that Johns Hopkins was an abolitionist,” Crenson said, and the possibility exists that he owned enslaved people for the possibility of manumitting them.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 5, 2021

No wonder human forbearance was strained to its greatest tension when masters, thus liberating their slaves, assumed the lofty air of humanitarians who had actually done a noble act in manumitting a slave!

From History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens by George Washington Williams

Manumiss′ion, act of manumitting or setting free from slavery.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various

I am not the man who enslaved them; they are indebted to Englishmen for that favor; nevertheless I am devising means for manumitting many of them, and for cutting off the entail of slavery.

From A Social History of the American Negro Being a History of the Negro Problem in the United States. Including A History and Study of the Republic of Liberia by Benjamin Griffith Brawley

This practice received highly favorable social sanction, and masters often celebrated national holidays, anniversaries, birthdays, and other special events by manumitting one or more of their favorite slaves.

From The Black Experience in America by Norman Coombs