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

Mr. Darg testified of himself during the trial, that he never intended to manumit Thomas, and had made the promise merely as a means of obtaining his money.

From Isaac T. Hopper by Lydia Maria Francis Child

Now that provision was made for the freedmen the slaveholder felt at liberty to manumit his slaves.

From The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917 by Various

"How was it possible that Mr. Royal neglected to manumit her?" inquired the young man.

From A Romance of the Republic by Lydia Maria Francis Child

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

Enslaved people who had been manumitted and allied fighters in times of conflict were likely to be granted citizenship.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023

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

The woman who was not, the manumitted slave, the foreigner within the walls, the code disdained to consider.

From Historia Amoris: A History of Love, Ancient and Modern by Edgar Saltus

“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

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

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

Masters were required, when manumitting slaves, to furnish security, as in the other colonies.

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

Nevertheless I am devising means for manumitting many of them, and for cutting off the entail of slavery.

From American Negro Slavery A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime by Ulrich Bonnell Phillips

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