slave state

noun

1. any state, nation, etc., where slavery is legal or officially condoned.
2. Slave States, U.S. History. the states that permitted slavery between 1820 and 1860: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Slave State

noun

1. history any of the 15 Southern states in which slavery was legal until the Civil War

Word History and Origins

Origin of slave state¹

An Americanism dating back to 1800–10

Example Sentences

For much of the pre-Civil War era, slave states counted on their disproportionate representation in the Senate to frustrate anti-slavery legislation.

From Vox

They also emphasized such measures as the territorial clause, which granted Congress the power to ban slavery from the territories, thereby preventing the addition of new slave states.

From Washington Post

In 1854, he secured the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which opened those territories up to the possibility of becoming slave states.

From Washington Post

The Spaniards had made California a slave state, but the gold seekers by vote declared her free.

From Project Gutenberg

Kentucky was admitted into the Union as a slave State, without objection, on the 4th of February, 1791.

From Project Gutenberg

Our forefathers—yours and mine—voted for the admission of Kentucky as a slave State.

From Project Gutenberg

Thus, which ever way they should vote, Kansas would still remain a slave State.

From Project Gutenberg

They lived the life of outlaws, and neither slave-state nor free-state officers dared to try to capture them.

From Project Gutenberg