What does the phrase "town air makes a man sic (or free)" mean?

As a Journalism student of course you know how to use Google and Ask.com, correct?

When I typed the phrase "town air makes a man free" into a search engine, I got the following hit:

http://knowledge4africa.com/worldhistory/middle-ages08.htm

Medieval Europe
Evolution of Society and Class
Jean Miles
Rhodes University
Updated: 21 June 2006

The reference is almost half-way down that page:

"The town dwellers were drawn mainly from the wealthier peasantry but also included vagabonds, runaway serfs and ambitious younger offspring of the lesser nobility, and the surplus of a growing population. A serf who entered a free town and resided in it for a year and a day was automatically regarded as free. The townsman was a new man with a different value system from that of the lord, the serf, or the clergyman. Davis identified a terminology of the time: "Stadtluft macht frei", that is, town-air makes a man free."

Thank you very much for your help, what you've provided actually makes sense to me.

As for using other resources such as Ask.com or Google, I just happened to use this one for research purposes. I am aware of those search engines, but I am also aware of A2K, which is what I decided to choose instead. There are several engines and ask forums out there, I just happened to have chosen this one.

Not trying to be mean or anything, I'm just responding to your question.

But again, thank you very much for your time.

Do you have a context to it, or at least what document it came from?

What does the phrase "town air makes a man sic (or free)" mean

It means that someone has transposed or misinterpreted the word 'sic' meaning as it is written or written intentionally ie. quoting someone