emancipation

Definition of emancipation

Etymology

The use of emancipation to refer to anti-slavery, abolitionism, is attributed to Charles Godfrey Leland.[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɨˈmænsɨˈpejʃnˌ/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃǝn

Noun

emancipation (plural emancipations)

1. The act of setting free from the power of another, from slavery, subjection, dependence, or controlling influence
2. The state of being thus set free; liberation; used of slaves, minors, of a person from prejudices, of the mind from superstition, of a nation from tyranny or subjection.
   
   US President Abraham Lincoln was called the Great Emancipator after issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

Related terms

• emancipate
• emancipator
• emancipatoric (rare, non-standard)
• emancipatrix

References

• Notes:
  1. Farrar, Stewart (1998). "Foreword". in Mario Pazzaglini. Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, A New Translation. Blaine, Washington: Phoenix Publishing, Inc.. pp. 13-21. ISBN 0-919345-34-4.

Further reading

Emancipation is a term used to describe various efforts to obtain political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchised group, or more generally in discussion of such matters.

Among others, Karl Marx discussed political emancipation in his 1844 essay "On the Jewish Question", although often in addition to (or in contrast with) the term human emancipation. Marx's views of political emancipation in this work were summarized by one writer as entailing "equal status of individual citizens in relation to the state, equality before the law, regardless of religion, property, or other "private" characteristics of individual people."[1]

"Political emancipation" as a phrase is less common in modern usage, especially outside academic, foreign or activist contexts. However, similar concepts may be referred to by other terms. For instance, in the United States the civil rights movement culminating in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, can be seen as further realization of events such as the Emancipation Proclamation and abolition of slavery a century earlier.

References

1. Notes on Political and Human Emancipation, Mark Rupert, Syracuse University.