MANUMISSION. The act of releasing from the power of another. The act of giv ing liberty to a slave.
The modern acceptation of the word is the act of giving liberty to slaves. But in the Roman law it was a generic expression, equally applicable to the enfranchisement from the mamas, the mancipium, the dominica potestas, and the patria potestas. Manumittere signifies to escape from a power,— manus. Originally, the master could only validly manumit his slave when he had the dominimm jure Quiritium over him: if he held him merely in bonis, the manumission was null, according to the civil law ; but by the jus honorarium the slave was per mitted to enjoy his liberty de facto, but whatever he acquired belonged to hie master. The status of these quasi-slaves was fixed by the Lex Junia Norbana under which they became Latini Juniani, both which titles see. At first there were only three modes of manumission, viz.: 1. vindicta; 2. census; and, 3. testamentum. The vindicta con sisted in a fictitious suit, in which the assertor liber tatis, as plaintiff, alleged that the slave was free ; the master not denying the claim, the praetor ren dered a decision declaring the slave free. In this proceeding figured a rod,—festuca vindicta,—a sort of lance (the symhol of property), with which the assertor libertatis touched the slave when he claimed him as free : hence the expression vindicta manumissio. Census, the second mode, was when the slave was inscribed at the instance of his mas ter, by the censor, in the census as a Roman citizen. Testamento was when the testator declared in ex press terms that the slave should be free,—servus meus Cratiness liber esto,—or by a fideicommissum, —heres mews rogo to ut Sanum vicini mei servum manumittas, fideicommitto heredis mei ut iste cum servum gnanumittat.
Afterwards, manumission might take place in various other ways: In sacrosanctis ecclesiis. Jus tinian required the letter containing the manumis sion to be signed by five witnesses. Inter amicos, a declaration made by the master before his friends that he gave liberty to his slave : five wit nesses were required, and an act was drawn up In which it was stated that they had heard the dec laration. Per codicillum, by a codicil, which re
quired to be signed by five witnesses. There were many other modes of manumission, which were enumerated in a Constitution of Justinian. C. 76, 3-12; 1 Ortolan 35; 1 Etienne 78; Lagrange 101. See Hunter, Rom. L. 171; Sohm, Rom. L. by Ledlie 173.
The manumitted slave of a Roman followed the condition of his mother. 17 L. Q. R. 276.
Direct manumission may be either by deed or will, or any other act of notoriety done with the inten tion to manumit. A variety of these modes are described as used by ancient nations.
Indirect manumission was either by .operation of law, as the removal of a slave to a non-slaveholding state animo morandi, or by implication of law, as where the master by his acts recognized the free dom of his slave.
Manumission being merely the withdrawal of the dominion of the master, in accordance with the principles of the common law the right to manumit existed everywhere, unless forbidden by law. No formal mode or prescribed words were necessary to effect manumission ; it could he by parol ; and any words were sufficient which evinced a renun ciation of dominion on the part of the master ; Lewis v. Simonton, 8 Humphr. (Tenn.) 189; Fox v. Lambson, 8 N. J. L. 275. No one but the owner could manumit ; Ferguson v. Sarah, 4 T. J. Marsh. (Ky.) 103; Wallingsford v. Allen, 10 Pet. (U. S.) 583, 9 L. Ed. 542 ; and the effect was simply to make a freeman, not a citizen. But mere declarations of intention were insufficient unless subsequently carried into effect ; Coxe 259 ; In re Mickel, 14 Johns. (N. Y.) 324; Petry v. Christy, 19 Johns. (N. Y.) 53. Manumission could be made to take effect in future; Coxe 4 ; Geer v. Huntington, 2 Root (Conn.) 364. In the meantime the slaves were called statu liberi. As to the emancipation of slaves in the United States by proclamation of the president, see BOND AGE. See Cobb, Law of Slavery.