Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The term Antebellum describes the time period before the American Civil War. It is usually used to describe the Southern states of the United States that joined the Confederate States of America and the associated culture that involved plantations and a rural lifestyle as opposed to the Northern States' industrialization. It is also used to describe the architecture styles of the pre-war South. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.