You have already answered your own question two times (2X).

(#1)By your own admission, your ggfa was "emancipated"; so, because emancipated means "freed", that is exactly the category that he would fall under.

(2) "What difference does it make?

Answer:
You stated that it doesn't make any difference because we are all "COLORED".

That's true because all people of African ancestry are "free" nowadays......so, obviously, it doesn't matter anymore.

However, when genealogical researchers are involved in analyzing data from a truly historical standpoint, we must keep in mind that during the era PRIOR to the Civil War it did make a very BIG DIFFERENCE as to who was "FREE" OR "FREED".

Why??

Answer:
Because, ...as you, yourself, also pointed out ......in Virginia and Louisiana the "Free People of Color" lived in separate communities.

And, in Louisiana, let us NOT forget that since they spoke in French at that time, they were were called "gens de couleur libres", which when translated from French means the very same thing that the title of this forum means in English, = "Free People Of Color".