In the nineteenth century, the Ottoman state began a process of reform and reorganization that involved a dramatic intervention into hitherto unregulated aspects of the lives of all people under its authority. By mid-century, it had also become involved in the regulation of the slave trade and the fate of emancipated slaves. Indeed, although private owners were, and continued to be, responsible for most emancipations, state-initiated emancipations reached unparalleled levels from the third quarter of the nineteenth century. This essay examines why and how at this time the Ottoman state intervened and shaped the lives of many emancipated African slaves under its auspices. I argue that, while all aspects of Ottoman life were coming under greater official surveillance and regulation at this time, state intervention and its influence on the lives of emancipated slaves was unique in that it was legitimized through the concept of social indebtedness; upon emancipation, a former slave was obliged through social and religious traditions to become a client of its emancipator cum patron. These incursions into previously private social relationships were justified by the Ottoman state through a discourse of benevolence. When examining this intervention in the context of the broader changes in the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire, it becomes clear that the discourse of benevolence was used, as in other aspects of Ottoman life, to justify and fulfil the objectives of maintaining order, expanding the army, creating a large tax base, solving labour shortages and removing other potential loci of power.