Freedman

As a social class, freed slaves were liberti, though later Latin texts used the terms libertus and libertini interchangeably.

[3] Libertini were not entitled to hold public office or state priesthoods, nor could they achieve legitimate senatorial rank.

During the early Empire, however, freedmen held key positions in the government bureaucracy, so much so that Hadrian limited their participation by law.

They also enslaved Europeans (known as Saqaliba), as well as Caucasian and Turkic peoples, from coastal areas of the Mediterranean Region, the Balkans, Central Asia, and the Eurasian steppes.

[7][9][10] The offspring of Mamluks were regarded as Muslim freedmen, and hence excluded from the Arab-Muslim slave trade; they were known as the awlād al-nās ("sons of respectable people"), who either fulfilled scribal and administrative functions or served as commanders of the non-Mamluk ḥalqa troops, serving the ruling Arab and Ottoman dynasties in the Muslim world.

The era of Reconstruction was an attempt to establish new governments in the former Confederacy and to bring freedmen into society as voting citizens.

U.S. Army occupation soldiers were stationed throughout the South via military districts enacted by the Reconstruction Acts; they protected freedmen in voting polls and public facilities from violence and intimidation by white Southerners, which were common throughout the region.

The tribes have wanted to limit those who can benefit from tribal citizenship, in an era in which gaming casinos are yielding considerable revenues for members.

Descendants of freedmen, however, maintain that their rights to citizenship granted under the post-Civil War treaties should be restored.

Also, many came from the United Kingdom and Europe voluntarily, planning to settle in Australia, some as pastors and missionaries, others seeking to make a living by trade or farming.

But those who had come freely to Australia wanted to reserve the label "free men" exclusively for themselves, distinguishing themselves above those who had been "freed".