A free person
"The newly emancipated slave became a freeman, enjoying full legal rights in his new home."
A person who is not a serf or slave.
"After paying his debt to the lord, the man was finally recognized as a freeman and allowed to keep all of his own earnings."
In plain English: A freeman is someone who owns their own land and has full legal rights without being controlled by anyone else.
"After his debts were forgiven, he finally became a freeman and could own his own land without restrictions."
A surname.
"The Freeman family has lived in that village for generations."
An English surname, from Middle English.
"The genealogist traced the family's history back to a man named Freeman, noting that it was simply an inherited English surname rather than a title of freedom."
The word freeman comes from Old English, where it originally combined the concepts of "free" and "man." It entered modern usage as a doublet of the older term preman to describe someone who was not bound by servitude.