manumission

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Release from slavery or other legally sanctioned servitude; the giving of freedom; the act of manumitting.

   “The manumission of the slaves in New York has been gradual.”

   “The most important law of Augustus, was the lex oelia sentia, deserving of all praise, which related to the manumission of slaves.”

   “In the west, and especially in Cornwall, the names of the serfs were mainly Celtic,—Griffith, Modred, Riol, and so forth,—as may be seen from the list of manumissions preserved in a mass-book at St. Petroc's, or Padstow.”

   “The more innocent dreamed of a manumission kindly bestowed by the new Emperor as one of a number of acts of justice and clemency proper to a new reign.”

   “Rather than encouraging his countrymen to liberate their slaves, he opposed both private manumission and public emancipation.”