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To emancipate someone (including oneself) is to free them from restraint, control, or the power of another, and especially to free them from bondage or enslavement. It follows that the noun emancipation refers to the act or practice of emancipating. The Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, for example, ordered that enslaved people living in the Confederate states be released from the bonds of ownership and made free people. It took more than two years for news of the proclamation to reach the enslaved communities in the distant state of Texas. The arrival of the news on June 19 (of 1865) is now celebrated as a national holiday—Juneteenth or Emancipation Day.
Examples of emancipation in a Sentence
Gabrielle Chenault, The Tennessean, 17 July 2025
In the gap between law and emancipation, white landowners reaped profits, and Black families remained in bondage, unaware of the paper promises made in Washington.
—Sughnen Yongo, Forbes.com, 19 June 2025
Like many Black Oklahomans, Dorn and Kristi Williams are descendants of Black Creek Freedmen—people of African descent who were either enslaved by citizens of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, lived freely within the Nation, or were of mixed ancestry and later categorized as Freedmen after emancipation.
—Kristal Brent Zook, Essence, 16 June 2025
This event will explore African American musical traditions from emancipation to present day.
—Gabrielle Chenault, Nashville Tennessean, 16 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for emancipation
Cite this Entry
“Emancipation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emancipation. Accessed 2 Aug. 2025.
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emancipation
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