EMANCIPATION

(Lat., -from mancupo, I sell, or deliver over the tangible property in any thing.) By the ancient Roman ^<\w, the son stood in the relation of a slave to the father. By a fiction of that law, the son might be freed from this relation by being three times sold (mancipatus) by the father. Hence the enfranchisement of the son derived from this ceremony the name of emancipation. In course of time, various modes of emancipation, both tacit and expre , became recognized by the Roman jurisprudence. The word, in countries following that law, signifies the exemption of the son from the power of the father, either by expre act, or by implication of law. By the present civil law of France, majority (and with it emancipation) is attained at 21 years of age; and the marriage of a minor emancipates him. (See Code Civil, lib. 1. ch.3.) In ordinary language, emancipation is used in a general sense to signify the enfranchisement of a slave, or the admi ion of particular cla es to the enjoyment of civil rights. [s. 405]