Legal Definitions - freeman

Freeman

A "freeman" refers to an individual who is not enslaved and enjoys the full civil and political rights afforded to citizens within a free society. Historically, the term also denoted a person with specific civic privileges, such as the right to vote or hold property, particularly within a town or borough, distinguishing them from those with lesser status or obligations.

Examples:

• In the Roman Republic, a libertus, or freedman, was a former slave who had been legally emancipated. While they might not have possessed all the same social standing as someone born free, their status as a freeman meant they were no longer property and gained many fundamental rights, such as the ability to own property, marry, and have children who would be born free. This illustrates the core meaning of a freeman as someone who is not enslaved.

• During the medieval period in England, a person could become a "freeman of the city" of London. This status granted them significant economic and civic advantages, including the right to trade freely within the city without paying certain tolls, to join powerful guilds, and to participate in local governance by voting for city officials. This distinguished them from non-freemen, such as serfs or recent migrants, who lacked these specific privileges and protections.

• In a contemporary democratic nation, every adult citizen who has not been legally disenfranchised (for instance, by a felony conviction in some jurisdictions) is considered a freeman in the broadest sense. They possess fundamental civil liberties such as freedom of speech, the right to vote in elections, and the ability to own property, without being subject to arbitrary rule or servitude. This reflects the modern understanding of a freeman as someone enjoying the full spectrum of civil and political rights inherent to a free government.