freedman (n.)

"manumitted slave," c. 1600, from past participle of free (adj.) + man (n.). Especially in U.S. history. The older word is freeman. Freedman's Bureau (1865) was the popular name of the "Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands," an office of the War Department established by Congress March 3, 1865, and discontinued in 1872.