Glossary

Also abolitionist, abolishment

To end or completely do away with something, specifically on a large-scale, systematic level; in the 18th and 19th centuries, used specifically in relation to the movement dedicated to ending slavery.

See also emancipation, manumission.

To adapt a foreign name, word, or phrase to English usage.

Leave (something) to another person in one’s will.

Arrange according to a plan or system, particularly relating to the law.

Goods or products used in commerce and trade.

An alliance or agreement between people, parties, or states for a common purpose.

Someone who makes barrels, casks and tubs.

A person of mixed European and African descent born in the Caribbean or Americas; first used in the 17th and 18th centuries and remained in common usage through the mid-20th century.

To reduce or destroy by great number.

Contraction for the word ditto, meaning the same as noted above.

Also emancipation

To set free, especially from legal, social, or political restrictions.

See also abolish/abolition, manumit/manumission, and self-emancipate.

A historic term for the legal status given to people of African descent who were not enslaved.

A contracted agreement in which one person is bound to another in service for a set period of time.

Someone or something native to a particular place.

Also manumission, manumittance

Release from slavery; usually used to describe a personal act of freeing an enslaved person, as opposed to the systematic elimination of slavery by a state or nation.

See also abolish/abolition and emancipate/emancipation.

A person of mixed white and black ancestry (commonly used in 18th- and 19th-century descriptions of enslaved individuals but considered offensive today).

To obtain the rights of citizenship (as opposed to someone who is born with citizenship).

The owner of an estate; a term used especially in 18th-century New York for estates originally granted under Dutch rule.

A Christian festival, held on the seventh Sunday after Easter.

A list of property and possessions left after someone dies.

A farm or estate that produced goods (food or raw materials) to be shipped elsewhere (instead of being used onsite).

(1) A clause in a legal document relating to a specific matter or subject.

(2) Food, clothing, and other necessities.

To be kept away from others, usually as a result of exposure to a disease.

A form of making amends, often involving payment, for a previous wrong or injustice.

The process of making designs in the skin, usually through cutting, scratching, or branding, and often associated with cultural rites of passage.

To free oneself from bondage (used in contrast to the term “run away,” in order to show more agency on the part of an enslaved person who chose to escape enslavement).

The process of turning a raw animal hide into leather.

A public auction.

(Also viz’t) Abbreviation of the Latin videlicet, meaning namely, or, in other words (used in 18th-century English documents to introduce a list or explanation).

Relating to work or a job.