How to Use freedman in a Sentence

freedman

noun
  • Yet the terms of such contracts could be onerous to the freedmen.
    — The Root, 29 Sep. 2017
  • Many were freedmen or even slaves, which may account for their low social standing.
    — Franz Lidz, New York Times, 13 June 2023
  • The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages.
    — Jessica B. Harris, Southern Living, 13 May 2024
  • The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages.
    — Jessica B. Harris, Southern Living, 13 May 2024
  • The law was not intended to be enforced against whites but had the clear intent to restrict the civil rights of freedmen.
    — Morgan Marietta, The Conversation, 15 Jan. 2026
  • Among the two hundred spectators, a quarter were Black freedmen.
    — Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2023
  • It was also meant to protect freedmen and women from assaults by Southern whites.
    — Allison Keyes, Smithsonian, 8 Feb. 2018
  • For the very first time in the history of forever, us freedmen and women were suddenly able to own a piece of our own land.
    — Clarkisha Kent, The Root, 11 Mar. 2018
  • This ultimately stripped the freedmen of health care, food and housing assistance.
    — Essence, 2 July 2019
  • As the authors remind us, black freedmen did serve in the ranks of the Continental Army—and suffer and die.
    — Peter Cozzens, WSJ, 21 Dec. 2018
  • Douglass demanded that the Union Army provide food and shelter for the Black freedmen.
    — Deneen L. Brown, Washington Post, 1 July 2023
  • In many cases, those freed from slavery were incorporated into tribes as full citizens, known as freedmen.
    — Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, 20 Nov. 2024
  • When plantation heirs tried to reclaim the land, freedmen forcefully resisted.
    — Daniel R. Mandell, Time, 7 Apr. 2020
  • But Smalls’s heroic story and his personal plea to recruit freedmen to the Union cause must have been powerful.
    — Big Think, 13 Nov. 2025
  • The community, founded as a freedman’s town in 1871, is rich in history.
    — Jane Stueckemann, Houston Chronicle, 2 Aug. 2019
  • In those cases, Grills said, the freedman’s agency would be responsible for helping those who cannot establish lineage.
    — Curtis Bunn, NBC News, 13 June 2023
  • But, when Dawes agents were putting together their lists, freedmen and their descendants were often kept on a separate roll, or not included at all.
    — Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, 20 Nov. 2024
  • Tanney was a freedman who tried to buy the freedom of his wife and daughters, but Limbrey’s ancestors refused and hanged him for attempting to claim his wife’s remains.
    — Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, 4 Aug. 2021
  • The historically black school had been established for the education of freedmen at the end of the Civil War.
    — Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2020
  • Other laws prevented freedmen from having free access to public facilities.
    — Charles Blow, The Mercury News, 19 June 2024
  • But after freedmen had deposited more than $3 million in the bank, the bank began lending the money to White businessmen who couldn’t repay their loans.
    — Courtland Milloy, Washington Post, 13 June 2023
  • Many other freedmen on the South Carolina Sea Islands refused to work for their former enslavers.
    — Essence, 18 June 2024
  • That history would be buried with many freedmen in the Black section of Savannah’s Laurel Grove cemetery.
    — Alexia Fernández Campbell, Essence, 4 July 2024
  • These were to control the lives and control the movements, control any attempt at owning property, any attempt at physical liberty, really, for the freedmen.
    — David Frum, The Atlantic, 10 June 2026
  • Because of the 1866 treaties, freedmen were granted membership into the nation under which they were previously enslaved.
    — The Root, 26 Jan. 2018
  • Secundio, Zuchtriegel explained, was a freedman, having formerly been a public slave—essentially, a municipal worker owned by the city.
    — Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2021
  • Memorial Day—first celebrated by freedmen in April 1865—commemorates the end of that war and the lives lost fighting over the scourge of slavery.
    — Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 19 June 2017
  • His story captures the oft-changing demographic makeup of a neighborhood with a long history dating back to the end of the Civil War, when it was largely settled by freedmen.
    — Andrew Dansby, Houston Chronicle, 28 Feb. 2018
  • In 2007, more than three-quarters of Cherokee citizens voted to kick out descendants of freedmen and other non-Indians.
    — Sean Murphy, The Seattle Times, 31 Aug. 2017
  • Having first modeled an idealized, kneeling figure from his own white body, Ball was persuaded to rework the pose based on a photograph of an actual freedman named Archer Alexander.
    — Jonathan W. White, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 June 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'freedman.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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