manumission

Examples of manumission in the following topics:

• Slavery and Liberty

  • Freedom for slaves could only be obtained through manumission by their owner, or through dangerous escape.
  • Under the system of slavery in the United States, freedom for slaves was only possible by running away (which was difficult and illegal to do) or by manumission by the slave owners, which was frequently regulated or prohibited by law.
  • The principal organized bodies to advocate these reforms in the North were the Pennsylvania Abolition Society and the New York Manumission Society.

• The Old South

  • Manumissions increased for nearly two decades.
  • Many individual acts of manumission freed thousands of slaves in total.

• In Quest of Freedom

  • The principal organized bodies to advocate this reform were the Pennsylvania Antislavery Society and the New York Manumission Society.
  • John Jay (1745–1829), founder of the abolitionist organization New York Manumission Society in 1785.

• Slavery and Politics

  • In 1806, with concern developing over the rise in the number of free black people in the United States and the success of the Haitian Revolution, the Virginia General Assembly modified the 1782 slave law to permit the re-enslavement of freedmen who remained in the state for more than twelve months after manumission.
  • This new law led to an overall decline in manumissions in the state.

• Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement

  • These included the banning of slavery in the territories, and manumission campaigns encouraging individual owners to free slaves.
  • Manumission campaigns in the Upper South were also successful in increasing the number of free people of color in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware where, by 1810, three-quarters of Black people in Delaware were free.

• Gabriel's Rebellion

  • Prior to Gabriel's Rebellion, some Virginian slave owners were wary of the increasing number of free blacks and argued for stricter manumission laws.

• The Politics of Slavery

  • The principal organized bodies to advocate these reforms in the north were the Pennsylvania Abolition Society and the New York Manumission Society.

• Legal Changes to Slavery: 1777-1804

  • Although Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware were slave states, their legislatures passed measures geared towards manumission.

• African-American Culture

  • Some slaves managed to purchase their own freedom through their kitchen gardens--saving their earnings for years to allow themselves and their children to achieve manumission.

• John Randolph and the Old Republicans

  • In his will, he provided for their manumission and resettlement in Ohio.