Freeman

Freeman is one who, at birth inherits the rights and privileges of a citizen, as distinguished from a freedman, who is born a slave and has acquired freedom. In the United States the latter term was applied to the emancipated negroes. In corporations, a freeman is a person who has inherited or acquired by adoption, purchase or apprenticeship, the rights of a citizen. By the Municipal Reform Act (1835), persons who had hitherto enjoyed the right of voting were placed on the Freeman's Roll, while those who obtained privileges by virtue of the Act were placed on a separate list called the Burgess Roll.