What does a person lose if he or she is disenfranchised?

The adjective disenfranchised describes a person or group of people who are stripped of their power, like disenfranchised post-Civil War African Americans who were deprived of their right to vote even after being freed from slavery.

Being disenfranchised is no fun. The rules work against you, your rights are constantly violated, and you have little power to change your life for the better. The Old French word enfranchir means “to make free,” and when you add the negative prefix dis-, disenfranchised means “made unfree.” A disenfranchised population doesn’t rest easy, and often they organize and fight back against their condition to demand their basic rights and freedom.