free staten.
/ˌfriː ˈsteɪt/, U.S. /ˌfri ˈsteɪt/ 1. A state which is governed by some form of representative democracy, rather than by a sovereign or similar ruler, or (now more usually) which has or claims autonomy or independence.Also in proper names, as Irish Free State (1922–37), and Orange Free State, an independent southern African republic (1854–1900) and subsequently a province of South Africa (now called the Free State).
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society > authority > rule or government > a or the state > [noun] > state ruled by the people
democracy1539
commonwealth1542
state1565
free state1567
commonalty1604
republic1604
people-state1606
populacy1632
peopledom1657
commonality1680
rep1701
commonweal1733
pantarchy1870
1567 G. Fenton in tr. M. Bandello Certaine Tragicall Disc. f. 3 v I colde also iustefie by thautority of the warres betwene the florentynes and the Syennoys, with other free states in ye contreye.
1570 T. Wilson tr. Demosthenes 3 Orations i. 2 The gouernment of tyranny, is a thing to be mistrusted of free states: especially when they are neighbours and border togither.
c1612 W. Strachey Hist. Trav. Virginia (1953) II. 142 Chawanooke, not subiect to the King of Wingandagoa but is a free state, vnder a lord at that tyme called Pooneno.
1647 T. Fuller Cause Wounded Conscience xv. 112 As all Countries are not Monarchies, governed by Kings, but some by free-States, where many together have equall power.
1682 A. Behn Roundheads v. ii. 50 But in a Free State, why shou'd not we be free?
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Free State, is a Republick govern'd by Magistrates elected by the free Suffrages of the Inhibitants.
1788 J. Adams Def. Constit. Govt. U.S.A. III. vi. 350 It is by no means just, politic, or true, to say, that offices, &c. are always conferred in free states,..according to merit... Birth and fortune are as much considered in simple democracies as in monarchies.
1852 C. Merivale Hist. Romans under Empire (ed. 2) I. ii. 62 Names conspicuous in the municipal annals of the free-state.
1889 Harper's Mag. Aug. 385/2 The town meeting of Boston town perpetuated the folkmote of the Anglo-Saxon free state.
1950 R. Albrecht-Carrié Italy from Napoleon to Mussolini iv. 119 Italy..gave up all claims to Dalmatia, save the city of Zara; and Fiume itself, without Sušak, became for a time a Free State.
1992 R. Wright Stolen Continents (1993) vii. 176 The great Caste War that began in 1847 and established a Maya free state that lasted until the twentieth century.
2. U.S. A state of the United States in which slavery was prohibited before the American Civil War. Now historical.
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society > authority > rule or government > a or the state > [noun] > a union or confederacy of states > state forming part of a confederation > of U.S.A. > where slavery prohibited
free state1819
society > authority > lack of subjection > freedom or liberty > liberation > [noun] > from slavery > abolition of slavery > U.S. state without slavery
free state1819
1819 J. Flint Let. 17 Feb. (1822) 135 I would not live in a free state, where one white man cleans the boots of another.
1820 Deb. Congress 9 Feb. 209 Population in the free States we know increases with greater rapidity than in the slaveholding States.
1854 M. J. Holmes Tempest & Sunshine ii. 24 I've done let my best horse and nigger go off with a man from the free States.
1888 J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. II. liii. 334 New States had been admitted substantially in pairs, a slave State balancing a free State.
1944 B. A. Botkin Treasury Amer. Folklore i. 71 Buffalo Bill's father, Isaac Cody, was likewise involved in the free-state cause.
1988 Oxf. Illustr. Encycl. IV. 128/1 After the abolition of slavery in the northern states of the USA, these ‘free states’ became lax in enforcing the first Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.
2007 Denver Post (Nexis) 8 Apr. f13 Most early Californians were anti-slavery, and California joined the Union as a free state.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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