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  • free soil
    free soil
    noun
    a region, especially a U.S. territory, prohibiting slavery prior to the Civil War.
  • free-soil
    free-soil
    adjective
    pertaining to or opposing the extension of slavery in the Territories.

free soil

1 American  

noun

U.S. History.
  1. a region, especially a U.S. territory, prohibiting slavery prior to the Civil War.


free-soil 2 American  
[free-soil] / ˈfriˈsɔɪl /

adjective

U.S. History.
  1. pertaining to or opposing the extension of slavery in the Territories.

  2. pertaining to or characteristic of the Free Soil party.


Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of free soil1

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50

Origin of free-soil2

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Residents who live in the KCD service area, which includes most of the cities and unincorporated areas in King County, are eligible for up to five free soil tests.

From Seattle Times Mar. 11, 2023

She escaped to free soil in Pennsylvania more than a century and a half ago, only returning to the Eastern Shore for the rescues of enslaved people.

From New York Times Jun. 21, 2022

Send items you don’t want to include, like bones or moldy cheese, to professional waste treaters and use the rest of your household food waste to create excellent and free soil amendments for your garden.

From Los Angeles Times Jan. 28, 2022

So what happened was, Dred Scott was an enslaved man whose owners had taken him to free soil, in Wisconsin and Illinois.

From Salon Jul. 12, 2021

Arriving on New York’s free soil, he later wrote, “A new world burst upon my agitated vision.”

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

Scott’s supporters enlisted, pro bono, the famous free-soil politician and lawyer Montgomery Blair to take his case, and under Blair’s legal leadership, Scott appealed to the U.S.

From New York Times Dec. 21, 2022

Slavery in the nearby territories bothered more midwesterners than the largely urban problem of immigration, and there the free-soil Whigs and Democrats forged antislavery alliances that soon coalesced as the Republican Party.

From Textbooks Jan. 18, 2018

In keeping with their reform traditions, northern Whigs were most receptive to antislavery ideas, but free-soil principles were also spreading among northern Democrats who resented southern domination of their party.

From Textbooks Jan. 18, 2018

Finally, in Kansas, the free-soil majority voted against the pro-slavery constitution in a fair election.

From Salon Feb. 21, 2011

The debate on this compromise of 1850 was the occasion when Webster deserted the free-soil principles which were now dominant in New England.

From History of the United States, Volume 3 by Andrews, Elisha Benjamin

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