Antebellum

"Antebellum" is an expression derived from Latin that means "before war" (ante, "before," and bellum, "war"). In United States history and historiography, "antebellum" is commonly used, in lieu of "pre-Civil War," in reference to the period of increasing sectionalism that led up to the American Civil War.

In that sense, the Antebellum Period is often considered to have begun with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, though it is sometimes stipulated to extend back as early as 1812. The period after the Civil War is called the "Postbellum," or Reconstruction, era.