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before or existing before a war, especially the American Civil War; prewar:
the antebellum plantations of Georgia.
Contemporary Examples

I know Tom Woods is an intriguing writer, and I too love my liberty, but this is no longer the antebellum era.
Rand Paul and Nullification Justin Green January 16, 2013

Historical Examples

True to her antebellum ideas, Mammy Maria dressed her two girls every afternoon before dinner.
The Bishop of Cottontown John Trotwood Moore

The subjects upon which the antebellum Negro preached, however, were comparatively few.
Negro Folk Rhymes Thomas W. Talley

Certainly Simms seems to have been the best imaginative writer the antebellum South produced.
American Men of Mind Burton E. Stevenson

That was in the antebellum days, before men realized they couldn’t oppress their fellows with impunity.
The Open Question Elizabeth Robins

The antebellum state-bank regulations were intended to secure the safety of the bank note.
Readings in Money and Banking Chester Arthur Phillips

As the antebellum period of the fifties came on these questions loomed larger in the public view.
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919 Various

In most of the antebellum state banking laws reserves were required only against note issue.
Readings in Money and Banking Chester Arthur Phillips

Here the author shows that Astoria was included in the antebellum conditions of the Treaty of Ghent.
The Washington Historical Quarterly, Volume V, 1914 Various

If Republicans stand for crude force, and Democrats for antebellum sentimentality, both are doomed together.
Psycho-Phone Messages Francis Grierson

adjective
of or during the period before a war, esp the American Civil War: the antebellum South
adj.

also ante-bellum, from Latin phrase ante bellum, literally “before the war;” see ante- + bellicose. In U.S., usually in reference to the American Civil War (1861-65); first attested in a June 14, 1862, entry in Mary Chesnut’s diary.
antebellum [(an-tee-bel-uhm)]

A descriptive term for objects and institutions, especially houses, that originated three or four decades before the Civil War. Antebellum is Latin for “before the war.”