Emancipation

Webster's Dictionary

(n.) The act of setting free from the power of another, from slavery, subjection, dependence, or controlling influence; also, the state of being thus set free; liberation; as, the emancipation of slaves; the emancipation of minors; the emancipation of a person from prejudices; the emancipation of the mind from superstition; the emancipation of a nation from tyranny or subjection.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

Originally a term in Roman law and name given to the process of the manumission of a son by his father; the son was sold to a third party and after the sale became sui juris  ; it is now applied to the remission of old laws in the interest of freedom, which Carlyle regards in his "Shooting Niagara," as the sum of nearly all modern recent attempts at Reform.