Emancipation means becoming free and equal; the term can be used in various contexts:

• historically, a slave becoming free by
  • being set free by the owner (manumission), voluntarily or in accordance with laws requiring it after a certain time or in certain cases, thereby becoming freedman (e.g. Emancipation Proclamation)
  • abolition of slavery
• emancipation of the serfs in Russian Empire
• a emancipation of minors, where a minor becomes an adult in practice, usually by receiving a declaration of liberation from a court expressly for this purpose
• Jewish emancipation in which the Jews were given citizenship rights in France in 1791 and in the rest of Europe through the nineteenth century, particularly after 1848. In some parts of eastern Europe such as Romania Jews were not emancipated until after the First World War.
• Catholic emancipation in Britain and Ireland, increasing Roman Catholics' civil rights.
• a convict in the historic Australian penal colonies becoming free
• equal rights for races, as opposed to racism
• women's liberation and men's (fathers) liberation, as opposed to sexism
• sexual liberation , as opposed to sexualism
• Youth Rights, as opposed to ageism
• animal rights, as opposed to speciesism

Emancipation is also a 1996 triple-CD album by the artist (then) formerly known as Prince.

See also Self-determination.