the name of a class of persons among the Anglo-Saxons, which consisted of those who had once been slaves but had obtained their liberty. Though in reality freemen, they were not considered as of the same rank with those who had been born free, and were still dependent on their former masters, or on some new patron. This custom the Anglo-Saxons derived from their ancestors in Germany, among whom the condition of freedmen was esteemed little above that of slaves.