1. the acts of freeing slaves or the formal documents granting freedom to slaves
Usage: historical; plural form of manumission

Examples

• The plantation owner’s will included manumissions for several enslaved workers.
• Historical records show that manumissions increased during the Revolutionary War period.
• The lawyer specialized in drafting legal manumissions for wealthy slaveholders.
• Many manumissions came with conditions that the freed person must leave the state.
• The archive contains dozens of manumissions dating from the 1780s.
• Some manumissions were granted in exchange for years of faithful service.