Antebellum
Before the fighting
Antebellum means before a war, from Latin words meaning "before" and "war." In American usage, it almost always refers to the period before the Civil War, evoking the plantation culture of the South: an antebellum mansion, antebellum society.
The term carries complicated associations—architectural elegance intertwined with slavery.
Ownership of people
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
- SouthernOf the region below
- ConfederacySecessionist Southern government
- secessionFormal withdrawal from union
Old South · slaveholding · cotton · abolition · states' rights · Dixie · tobacco · aristocracy
Grand home on farmland
- columnsUpright structural shafts
- porticoColumned covered entryway
- verandaRoofed open-air porch
- mansionLarge, stately home
Tara · balustrade · grand staircase · wraparound porch · pediment · symmetry · brick · magnolia
Refined woman from Dixie
- hoop skirtStiffened petticoat with rings
- cotillionFormal society dance event
- gentilityRefined social standing
- hospitalityGenerous treatment of guests
mint julep · debutante · chivalry · honor culture · agrarian · landed gentry · finishing school · dueling
slavery
Ownership of people
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
- SouthernOf the region below
- ConfederacySecessionist Southern government
secession · Old South · slaveholding · cotton · abolition · states' rights · Dixie · tobacco · aristocracy · fugitive
plantation house
Grand home on farmland
mansion · Tara · balustrade · grand staircase · wraparound porch · pediment · symmetry · brick · magnolia · live oak
Southern belle
Refined woman from Dixie
- hoop skirtStiffened petticoat with rings
- cotillionFormal society dance event
- gentilityRefined social standing
hospitality · mint julep · debutante · chivalry · honor culture · agrarian · landed gentry · finishing school · dueling · courtship
- historical erasStone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Middle Ages, Renaissance
- Southern HistoryDeep South, Old South, Dixie, Confederate, Confederacy
- Lionsgate FilmsHunger Games, Twilight, John Wick, Divergent, La La Land
Antebellumpostbellum
After a war
postwar · Reconstruction · post-Civil War · aftermath · Gilded Age
AntebellumReconstruction
Post-1865 national reunification period
post-emancipation · Jim Crow era · integrated · abolitionist
- antebellum homePre-Civil War Southern mansion
- antebellum mansionGrand pre-Civil War residence
- antebellum eraTime before the Civil War
- antebellum SouthPre-1861 slave states
- antebellum plantationsPre-Civil War Southern estates
- antebellum societyCulture before the Civil War
ante, antenatal, antecedent, antechamber, anterior, bell, bellow, bellicose, belligerent