Historical period in the Southern United States from 1815 to 1861
"Antebellum era" redirects here. For other uses, see Antebellum (disambiguation).
Antebellum Period in the Southern United States
1815–1861
There were just over 3.2 million slaves in the U.S. in 1850, about 14% of the total population.[1]
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Southern United States
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Key events
Adams–Onís treaty Missouri Compromise Indian removal Trail of Tears Manifest destiny Nullification crisis Mexican–American War Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Compromise of 1850 Fugitive Slave Act Bleeding Kansas Election of Lincoln
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American Civil War Confederate States of America
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The Antebellum South era (from Latin: ante bellum, lit. 'before the war') was a period in the history of the Southern United States that extended from the conclusion of the War of 1812 to the start of the American Civil War in 1861. This era was marked by the prevalent practice of slavery and the associated societal norms it cultivated. Over the course of this period, Southern leaders underwent a transformation in their perspective on slavery. Initially regarded as an awkward and temporary institution, it gradually evolved into a defended concept, with proponents arguing for its positive merits, while simultaneously vehemently opposing the burgeoning abolitionist movement.[2]
Society was stratified, inegalitarian, and perceived by immigrants as lacking in opportunities. Consequently, the manufacturing base lagged behind that of the non-slave states. Wealth inequality grew as the larger landholders took the greater share of the profits generated by slaves, which also helped to entrench their power as a political class.
As the country expanded westward, slavery's propagation became a major issue in national politics, eventually boiling over into the Civil War. In the years that followed the Civil War, the war was romanticized by historical revisionists to protect three central assertions: that the Confederate cause was heroic, that enslaved people were happy and satisfied, and that slavery was not the primary cause of the war.[3] This phenomenon has continued to the present day to contribute to racism, gender roles, and religious attitudes in the South, and to a lesser extent the rest of the country.[4][5]
^"1850 US Census, Chapter V: Slave Population of the US" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
^"The Southern Argument for Slavery [ushistory.org]". www.ushistory.org. Archived from the original on 2021-08-17. Retrieved 2021-11-07.
^King, Connor. "Lost Cause Textbooks: Civil War Education in the South from the 1890s to the 1920s". Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
^Cox, Karen L. (2019). Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-6413-0. OCLC 1054372624. (First published in 2003; 2019 edition has a new preface.)
^Wilson, Charles Reagan (2009). Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865–1920. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-4072-2. OCLC 758389689.
The AntebellumSouth era (from Latin: ante bellum, lit. 'before the war') was a period in the history of the Southern United States that extended from...
US Antebellum Georgia AntebellumSouth Carolina Antebellum Virginia Antebellum architecture Antebellum (film), a 2020 American film Lady Antebellum, former...
Antebellum architecture (from AntebellumSouth, Latin for "pre-war") is the neoclassical architectural style characteristic of the 19th-century Southern...
AntebellumSouth Carolina is typically defined by historians as South Carolina during the period between the War of 1812, which ended in 1815, and the...
in an attempt to blunt the name's associations with slavery and the AntebellumSouth, inadvertently causing a dispute with Black blues and gospel singer...
JSTOR 216102. PMID 20662186. Maurie D. McInnis, The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston, p. 14, UNC Press Books, 2015, ISBN 9781469625997 Di Lorenzo...
slavery-reliant economy and society in the AntebellumSouth, prior to the American Civil War (1861–65), in contrast to the "New South" of the post-Reconstruction Era...
convicts, female inmates in the antebellumSouth did not live in specialized facilities—as was the case in many antebellum Northern prisons—and sexual abuse...
Freedom in South Carolina (U of Illinois Press, 1997). Schwartz, Marie Jenkins. Born in bondage: Growing up enslaved in the antebellumSouth (Harvard UP...
belle 'beautiful') is a colloquialism for a debutante in the planter class of the AntebellumSouth. The image of a Southern belle is often characterized by fashion elements...
Western film Django Unchained, which is about a slave revolt in the AntebellumSouth. Earning $425.4 million worldwide, it won him another Academy Award...
whites, known disparagingly in some areas of the South as "Crackers." In the colonial and antebellum years, subsistence farmers tended to settle in the...
author of The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in AntebellumSouth Carolina (2000), which was named one of the ten best books on slavery...
and Fanny Kemble, wives of planters, wrote about this issue in the antebellumSouth in the decades before the Civil War. Sometimes planters used mixed-race...
were used for rice production, which was the major commodity crop in antebellumSouth Carolina. He also bought more enslaved African Americans as laborers...
film depicted an antebellum setting: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People recognizes in Song of the South remarkable artistic...
short film directed by Brent Stewart about a cannibal clown in the antebellumSouth. Blackberry Winter is also the title of the autobiography (1972) of...
Parks, and Don Johnson in supporting roles. Set in the Old West and AntebellumSouth, it is a highly stylized, heavily revisionist tribute to spaghetti...
worship, South Carolina, 1863 South Carolina slave codes Port Royal Experiment Old Slave Mart List of plantations in South Carolina AntebellumSouth Carolina...
States where traditions and legacies of the Confederate era and the AntebellumSouth live most strongly. The concept of Dixie as the location of a certain...
African-American culture to the culture of Scotch-Irish Americans in the AntebellumSouth. The second essay, "Are Jews Generic?", discusses middleman minorities...
Alpha Delta Pi, but left the sorority after attending a controversial AntebellumSouth plantation themed formal. Prior to appearing on The Bachelor, Kirkconnell...
The cuisine of the antebellum United States characterizes American eating and cooking habits from about 1776 to 1861. During this period different regions...
The Free Negro in the AntebellumSouth. p. 3. Berlin, Ira (1981). Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the AntebellumSouth. p. 174. Wilson, Black...
"happy slave" hospitality, and revealed a deep need to redeem the antebellumSouth. There were others that capitalized on this theme, such as Uncle Ben's...
inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the AntebellumSouth. Whitney's invention made upland short cotton into a profitable crop...
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