Reference: Freedom
Easton
The law of Moses pointed out the cases in which the servants of the Hebrews were to receive their freedom (Ex 21:2-4,7-8; Le 25:39-42,47-55; De 15:12-18). Under the Roman law the "freeman" (ingenuus) was one born free; the "freedman" (libertinus) was a manumitted slave, and had not equal rights with the freeman (Ac 22:28; comp. Ac 16:37-39; 21:39; 22:25; 25:11-12).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
"If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything. If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him. read more. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
"If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do. If she doesn't please her master, who has married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, seeing he has dealt deceitfully with her.
"'If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave. As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee: read more. then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers. For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves.
"'If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger's family; after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him; read more. or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself. He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him. If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall give back the price of his redemption. As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight. If he isn't redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee, he, and his children with him. For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, and serves you six years; then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty: read more. you shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, and out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress; as the LORD your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you: therefore I command you this thing today. It shall be, if he tells you, "I will not go out from you"; because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you; then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. It shall not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you; for to the double of the hire of a hireling has he served you six years: and the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do.
But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us publicly, without a trial, men who are Romans, and have cast us into prison. Do they now release us secretly? No indeed. Let them come themselves and bring us out." The sergeants reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, read more. and they came and begged them. When they had brought them out, they asked them to depart from the city.
But Paul said, "I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. I beg you, allow me to speak to the people."
When they had tied him up with thongs, Paul asked the centurion who stood by, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and not found guilty?"
The commanding officer answered, "I bought my citizenship for a great price." Paul said, "But I was born a Roman."
For if I have done wrong, and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true that they accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar." Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, "You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go."