Manganese-peroxos are proposed as key intermediates in a number of important biochemical and synthetic transformations. Our understanding of the structural, spectroscopic, and reactivity properties of these metastable species is limited, however, and correlations between these properties have yet to be established experimentally. Herein we report the crystallographic structures of a series of structurally related metastable Mn(III)-OOR compounds, and examine their spectroscopic and reactivity properties. The four reported Mn(III)-OOR compounds extend the number of known end on Mn(III)-(eta(1)-peroxos) to six. The ligand backbone is shown to alter the metal-ligand distances and modulate the electronic properties key to bonding and activation of the peroxo. The mechanism of thermal decay of these metastable species is examined via variable temperature kinetics. Strong correlations between structural (O-O and Mn center dot center dot center dot N-py,N-quin distances), spectroscopic (E(pi(v)*(O-O) -> Mn CT band), nu(O-O)), and kinetic (Delta H-double dagger and Delta S-double dagger) parameters for these complexes provide compelling evidence for rate limiting O-O bond cleavage. Products identified in the final reaction mixtures of Mn(III)-OOR decay are consistent with homolytic O-O bond scission. The N-heterocyclic amines and ligand backbone (Et vs Pr) are found to modulate structural and reactivity properties, and O-O bond activation is shown, both experimentally and theoretically, to track with metal ion Lewis acidity. The peroxo O-O bond is shown to gradually become more activated as the N-heterocyclic amines move closer to the metal ion causing a decrease in pi-donation from the peroxo pi(v)*(O-O) orbital. The reported work represents one of very few examples of experimentally verified relationships between structure and function.