antebellum

[ an-tee-bel-uhm ]

adjective

1. before or existing before a war, especially the American Civil War; prewar:

   the antebellum plantations of Georgia.

antebellum

/ ˌæntɪˈbɛləm /

adjective

1. of or during the period before a war, esp the American Civil War

   the antebellum South

antebellum

1. A descriptive term for objects and institutions, especially houses, that originated three or four decades before the Civil War . Antebellum is Latin for “before the war.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of antebellum¹

First recorded in 1860–65, antebellum is from Latin ante bellum “before the war”

Word History and Origins

Origin of antebellum¹

Latin ante bellum, literally: before the war

Example Sentences

The scathingly satirical play presented three interracial couples who participate in a retreat that practices “antebellum sexual performance therapy.”

From Washington Post

Along the way, explore the remaining structures, including antebellum brick columns rising up from rubble piles.

From Outside Online

But, of course, there was no national control over immigration in the antebellum period because the states would not allow it.

From Washington Post

During the antebellum decades, as slavery’s apologists ratcheted up their claims that slaveholding was a constitutionally protected property right, abolitionists drew out the antislavery implications of the founding documents.

From Washington Post

Through the eyes of a character with uncommon access and compassion, Sadeqa Johnson’s novel “The Yellow Wife” evokes a vision of one woman’s tenacious survival of antebellum cruelty and objectification.

From Washington Post

I know Tom Woods is an intriguing writer, and I too love my liberty, but this is no longer the antebellum era.

From The Daily Beast

It showed how the old guard is trying to guide the Treasury secretary and protect the status quo antebellum as much as possible.

From The Daily Beast

That was in the antebellum days, before men realized they couldn't oppress their fellows with impunity.

From Project Gutenberg

Certainly Simms seems to have been the best imaginative writer the antebellum South produced.

From Project Gutenberg

As the antebellum period of the fifties came on these questions loomed larger in the public view.

From Project Gutenberg

Here the author shows that Astoria was included in the antebellum conditions of the Treaty of Ghent.

From Project Gutenberg

The antebellum state-bank regulations were intended to secure the safety of the bank note.

From Project Gutenberg