Definition of "antebellum"

antebellum

/ˌæn.tiˈbɛl.əm/

adjective
not comparable
1. Of the time period prior to a war.
2. (US) Of the period prior to the American Civil War, especially in reference to the culture of the southern states.
  Quotations
  There was no single characteristic house style during the antebellum period, but the elegant plantation homes built in the American South, with their central entrances, balconies, columns, and formal ballrooms, came closest to representing a discrete architectural style for the period.
  2004, James M. Volo, Dorothy Denneen Volo, The Antebellum Period, Greenwood Publishing Group, page 115