Was it widespread practice to grant freedom to slaves in early Roman Empire?
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There is a text of Cicero in which he defends a friend of his, named Milo. Milo was on trial for the murder of P. Clodius Pulcher, but manumitted (freed) all his slaves in advance. Roman slaves where required to be tortured for evidence against their master, hence freeing them will make this impossible. (Cicero, Speech in Defense of Milo 57, 58). I don't know to what extent Romans on trial freed their slave, but we can assume it happened more often, because the prosecutors of Milo suspected him of freeing his slaves in order that they might not be tortured.
When rich Roman landowners contracted a captain to transport commodities for them (like products from their estates) they often send an overseer with the ship(s) to look after their interests. This would often be a freed slave who had worked for them for many years so they can trust them, obviously the slave had to be a schooled one to administer his masters money.
I also heard in secondary school (12-18) of schooled slaves being allowed to work for themselves a part of their time, and keep some of the money for themselves so they could buy themselves free eventually.
Obviously these three examples are all house-slaves, and we might assume a certain affinity with their masters. I don't think slaves working on farming estates or in mines had the same chances of being freed, if any at all.
I don't think you'll find any sources on the amount of slaves that where freed, but i hope this helps.
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