The Trust Secures Exclusive Rights to “AS DESCENDANTS OF AMERICAN SLAVES”
- Freedmen Nation
- Jul 11, 2025
- 2 min read
The Freedmen Reparations Fund Trust is proud to announce that it now holds exclusive non-commercial licensing rights to the federally registered trademark “AS DESCENDANTS OF AMERICAN SLAVES,” through a formal agreement with the mark’s originator, MeShorn Daniels.
This license strengthens the Trust’s legal and cultural jurisdiction over the Freedmen status—defined by lineage, not race—and ensures that Verified Freedmen remain the sole stewards of their own history, classification, and naming systems. This is not an identity claim—it is a status, tied directly to the legacy of chattel slavery in the United States.
This agreement is now backed by foundational declarations that assert cultural governance and reparative standing:
Why It Matters
Literature & Publications
Authors and publishers must now secure a license if using “AS DESCENDANTS OF AMERICAN SLAVES” in any work that references reparations frameworks, cultural identity, or Freedmen classification. Unauthorized usage risks takedown and legal enforcement.
Websites & Digital Platforms
Websites or online movements that attempt to assert control over the Freedmen name or reparations eligibility using this term without authorization will face removal or correction under this licensed authority.
Educational Content
Textbooks, school websites, or educational media that include chapters on slavery or American Freedmen must now adhere to the Trust’s legally defined cultural framework. Unauthorized or misclassified references will be challenged.
Licensing Repairs the Harms
This trademark license is not merely a protective measure—it is a restorative action. It corrects decades of cultural misappropriation, political dilution, and misrepresentation of our people’s status. By licensing this term, the Trust ensures that only Verified Freedmen can define what this lineage-based status means—legally, historically, and culturally.
This also prevents unauthorized institutions from co-opting Freedmen language to mislead the public, collect donations under false pretenses, or frame political narratives that erase our people’s position as the victims of U.S. chattel slavery.
Licensing Inquiries
Anyone seeking to use the phrase “AS DESCENDANTS OF AMERICAN SLAVES” in public, commercial, or institutional materials must request licensing permission directly.
Submit all licensing inquiries at:
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