slave state

noun

1. any state, nation, etc., where slavery is legal or officially condoned.

2. U.S. History.,  Slave States, 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

The federal government’s failure to enforce these amendments in the former slave states ultimately gave rise to the civil-rights movement, which succeeded in moving these paper guarantees closer to reality.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

It was held, even in the South, to be a regrettable evil which the slave states would eventually abolish or allow to die out in some undefined way.

Read more on Salon

All that counts is our ancient electoral college system, rooted in the Founders’ appeasement of Southern slave states.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Many of the earliest separatists wanted to transform Southern California into a slave state.

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Rock went on to describe Los Angeles as a “slave state” where there’s an “acceptance that Mexicans are going to take care of white people … that doesn’t exist anywhere else.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times