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{{short description|Act of a slave owner freeing their slaves}}
{{For|the dance music events in Ibiza|Manumission (event)}}
{{
{{distinguish|Manumation}}
{{use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Slavery}}
[[File:Carta de liberdade, por Antônio Joaquim de Souza Costa ao escravo Geraldo, Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo.pdf|thumb|Letter where one can read that the slave Geraldo will be free with the condition of working for another 6 years (Brazil). [[Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo|Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo|APESP]]]]
'''Manumission''', or '''enfranchisement''', is the act of freeing
The motivations for manumission were complex and varied. Firstly, it may present itself as a sentimental and benevolent gesture. One typical scenario was the freeing in the master's [[will (law)|will]] of a devoted servant after long years of service. A trusted [[bailiff]] might be manumitted as a gesture of gratitude. For those working as agricultural labourers or in workshops, there was little likelihood of being so noticed. In general, it was more common for older slaves to be given freedom.
Legislation under the early [[Roman Empire]] put limits on the number of slaves that could be freed in wills (''[[lex Fufia Caninia]]'', 2 BC), which suggests that it had been widely used. Freeing slaves could serve the pragmatic interests of the owner. The prospect of manumission worked as an incentive for slaves to be industrious and compliant. Roman slaves were paid a wage (''[[wiktionary:peculium|peculium]]''), which they could save up to buy themselves freedom. Manumission contracts found, in some abundance at [[Delphi]] (Greece), specify in detail the prerequisites for liberation.
==Ancient Greece==
{{Main|Slavery in ancient Greece}}
''A History of Ancient Greece'' explains that in the context of [[Ancient Greece]], affranchisement came in many forms.<ref name="AHOAG">{{Cite book |last1=Orrieux |first1=Claude |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofancient0000orri |title=A History of Ancient Greece |last2=Pantel |first2=Pauline Schmitt |publisher=Wiley |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-631-20308-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofancient0000orri/page/187 187] |quote=Affranchise.
Even once a slave was freed, he was not generally permitted to become a citizen, but would become a [[metic]]. The master then became
==Ancient Rome==
{{
Under [[Roman law]], a slave had no [[Person (law)|personhood]] and was protected under law mainly as his or her master's property. In [[Ancient Rome]], a slave who had been manumitted was a ''[[libertus]]'' ([[grammatical gender|feminine]] ''liberta'') and a citizen.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beard & Crawford |title=Rome in the Late Republic |publisher=Duckworth |year=1999 |isbn=978-0715629284 |location=London |pages=41, 48 |orig-year=1985}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hornblower & Spawforth
[[File:Mariemont manumission relief 02.JPG|thumb|250 px|Relief depicting the manumission of two slaves, with ''[[Pileus (hat)|pileus]]'' hats (1st century BC, [[Musée royal de Mariemont]]).]]▼
▲[[File:Mariemont manumission relief 02.JPG|thumb|250 px|Relief depicting the manumission of two slaves, with ''[[Pileus (hat)|pileus]]'' hats (1st century BC, [[Musée royal de Mariemont]]).]]
The soft felt ''[[Pileus (hat)|pileus]]'' hat was a symbol of the freed slave and manumission; slaves were not allowed to wear them:<ref name="sacred">{{Cite book |last1=Tate |first1=Karen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b7KbLLjzuRgC |title=Sacred Places of Goddess: 108 Destinations |last2=Olson |first2=Brad |publisher=CCC Publishing |year=2005 |isbn=1-888729-11-2 |pages=360–361}}</ref>
{{
The cap was an attribute carried by [[Libertas]], the Roman goddess of freedom, who was also recognized by the rod (''vindicta'' or ''festuca''),<ref name="sacred" /> used ceremonially in the act of ''manumissio vindicta'', Latin for "freedom by the rod" (emphasis added):
{{
A [[Freedman|freed slave]] customarily took the former owner's family name, which was the ''nomen'' (see [[Roman naming conventions]]) of the master's ''[[gens]]''. The former owner became the [[Patronage in ancient Rome|patron]] (''patronus'') and the freed slave became a client (''cliens'') and retained certain obligations to the former master, who owed certain obligations in return. A freed slave could also acquire multiple patrons.
A freed slave became a citizen. Not all citizens, however, held the same freedoms and privileges. In particular contrast, [[
The freed slaves' rights were limited or defined by particular [[
If they were sharp at business, however, there were no social limits to the wealth that freedmen could amass. Their children held full legal rights, but [[
A notable freedman in [[Latin literature]] is [[Trimalchio]], the ostentatiously ''[[nouveau riche]]'' character in the ''[[Satyricon]]'', by [[Petronius]].
==Peru==
In colonial Peru, the laws around manumission were influenced by the ''[[Siete Partidas]]'', a Castilian law code. According to the ''Siete Partidas'', masters who manumitted their slaves should be honored and obeyed by their former slaves for giving such a generous gift.<ref>McKinley, Michelle A. (2016) ''Fractional Freedoms: Slavery, Intimacy, and Legal Mobilization in Colonial Lima, 1600–1700''. New York: Cambridge University Press, p. 165. {{ISBN|978-1107168985}}</ref> As in other parts of Latin America under the system of ''
In baptismal manumission, enslaved children were freed at baptism. Many of these freedoms came with stipulations which could include servitude often until the end of an owner's life.<ref>McKinley, ''Fractional Freedoms'', p. 152</ref> Children freed at baptism were also frequently the children of still-enslaved parents. A child who was freed at baptism but continued to live with enslaved family was far more likely to be re-enslaved.<ref>McKinley, ''Fractional Freedoms'', p. 145</ref> Baptismal manumission could be used as evidence of a person's freed status in a legal case but they did not always have enough information to serve as a ''carta de libertad''.<ref>McKinley, ''Fractional Freedoms'', p. 153.</ref>
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==United States==
{{main|Slavery in the United States|Free Negro|Freedman#United States}}
African slaves were freed in the North American colonies as early as the 17th century. Some, such as [[Anthony Johnson (colonist)|Anthony Johnson]], went on to become landowners and slaveholders themselves. [[File:Gowan Pamphlet Manumission.jpg|left|thumb|Original manumission for [[Gowan Pamphlet]] of the [[Colony of Virginia]], which freed him from slavery. Signed by his owner, David Miller. c. 1793]]
Regulation of manumission began in 1692, when Virginia established that to manumit a slave, a person must pay the cost for them to be transported out of the colony. A 1723 law stated that slaves may not "be set free upon any pretence whatsoever, except for some meritorious services to be adjudged and allowed by the governor and council".<ref>Wilson, ''Black Codes'' (1965), p. 15.
In some cases, a master who was drafted into the army would send a slave instead, with a promise of freedom if he survived the war.<ref>Taylor loc 491.</ref> The new government of Virginia repealed the laws in 1782, and declared freedom for slaves who had fought for the colonies during the [[American Revolutionary War]] of 1775–1783.{{cn|date=October 2023}} Another law passed in 1782 permitted masters to free their slaves of their own accord. Previously, a manumission had required obtaining consent from the state legislature, an arduous process which was rarely successful.<ref>Taylor loc 604</ref>
However, as the population of [[free Negroes]] increased, the state passed laws forbidding them from moving into the state (1778)<ref>Taylor loc 598</ref> and requiring newly-freed slaves to leave within one year unless they had special permission (1806).<ref>Wilson, ''Black Codes'' (1965), p. 16.</ref>▼
▲
In the [[Upper South]] in the late 18th century, planters had less need for slaves, as they switched from labour-intensive tobacco cultivation to mixed-crop farming. Slave states such as Virginia made it easier for slaveholders to free their slaves. In the two decades after the [[American Revolutionary War]], so many slaveholders accomplished manumissions by deed or in wills that the proportion of free black people to the total number of black people rose from less than 1% to 10% in the Upper South.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kolchin |first=Peter |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780809015542 |title=American Slavery, 1619–1877 |publisher=Hill and Wang |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-8090-2568-8 |location=New York}}</ref> In Virginia, the proportion of free black people increased from 1% in 1782 to 7% in 1800.<ref>Taylor loc 611</ref> Together with several [[Northern United States#American Civil War|Northern states]] abolishing slavery during that period, the proportion of free black people nationally increased to ~14% of the total black population. New York and New Jersey adopted gradual abolition laws that kept the free children of slaves as indentured servants into their twenties.▼
▲In the [[Upper South]] in the late 18th century, planters had less need for slaves, as they switched from labour-intensive tobacco cultivation to mixed-crop farming. Slave states such as Virginia made it easier for slaveholders to free their slaves. In the two decades after the [[American Revolutionary War]], so many slaveholders accomplished manumissions by deed or in wills that the proportion of free black people to the total number of black people rose from less than 1% to 10% in the Upper South.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kolchin |first=Peter |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780809015542 |title=American Slavery, 1619–1877 |publisher=Hill and Wang |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-8090-2568-8 |location=New York}}</ref> In Virginia, the proportion of free black people increased from 1% in 1782 to 7% in 1800.<ref>Taylor loc 611</ref> Together with several [[Northern United States#American Civil War|Northern states]] abolishing slavery during that period, the proportion of free black people nationally increased to ~14% of the total black population. New York and New Jersey adopted gradual abolition laws that kept the free children of slaves as indentured servants into their twenties.
After the 1793 invention of the [[cotton gin]], which enabled the development of extensive new areas for cotton cultivation, the number of manumissions decreased because of increased demand for slave labour. In the 19th century, slave revolts such as the [[Haitian Revolution]] of 1791-1804, and especially, the 1831 rebellion, led by [[Nat Turner]], increased slaveholders' fears, and most Southern states passed laws making manumission nearly impossible until the passage of the 1865 [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], which abolished slavery [[penal labour in the United States|"except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,"]] after the [[American Civil War]]. In [[Antebellum South Carolina|South Carolina]], to free a slave required permission of the [[South Carolina Legislature|state legislature]]; Florida law prohibited manumission altogether.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dresser |first=Amos |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NLihDvDkO2UC |title=The narrative of Amos Dresser : with Stone's letters from Natchez, an obituary notice of the writer, and two letters from Tallahassee, relating to the treatment of slaves |publisher=[[American Anti-Slavery Society]] |year=1836 |location=New-York |page=41 |chapter=Slavery in Florida |author-link=Amos Dresser}}</ref>▼
▲After the 1793 invention of the [[cotton gin]], which enabled the development of extensive new areas for cotton cultivation, the number of manumissions decreased because of increased demand for slave labour. In the 19th century, slave revolts such as the [[Haitian Revolution]] of
== Ottoman Empire ==
[[Slavery in the Ottoman Empire]] gradually became less central to the functions of Ottoman society throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Responding to the influence and pressure of European countries in the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire began taking steps to curtail the [[History of slavery|slave trade]], which had been legally valid under Ottoman law since the beginning of the empire.
[[Ottoman Empire]] policy encouraged manumission of male slaves, but not female slaves.
[[Sexual slavery]] was a central part of the Ottoman slave system throughout the history of the institution, and the most
Outside of explicit sexual slavery, most female slaves had domestic occupations, and often, this also included [[Islamic views on slavery#Sexual intercourse|sexual relations with their masters]]. This was a lawful motive for their purchase, and the most common one. It was similarly a common motivation for their retention.
The Ottoman Empire and 16 other countries signed the 1890 [[Brussels Conference Act of 1890|Brussels Conference Act]] for the suppression of the slave trade. However, clandestine slavery persisted well into the 20th century. Gangs were also organized to facilitate the illegal importation of slaves.
==See also==
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* {{Wiktionary-inline}}
* [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=manumission&searchmode=none Etymology of ''manumission'']
* [https://manumissionproject.omeka.net/ Virginia Manumission Database · Manumission Project]
[[Category:Slavery]]
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