Extracted From: A LAW DICTIONARY ..., SIXTH EDITION, 1856 by John Bouvier, CHILDS & PETERSON, PHILADELPHIA MANUMISSION, contracts. The agreement by which the owner or master of a slave sets him free and at liberty; the written instrument which contains this agreement is also called a manumission. 2. In the civil law it was different from emancipation, which, properly speaking, was applied to the liberation of children from paternal power....