- Antebellum
"Antebellum" is an expression derived from
Latin that means "before war" (', "before," and ', "war").In
United States history andhistoriography , "antebellum" is commonly used, in lieu of "pre-Civil War," in reference to the period of increasingsectionalism that led up to theAmerican Civil War . In that sense, the Antebellum Period is often considered to have begun with theKansas-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.Romanticism ::::— From the opening of the film "Gone with the Wind" (1939)
While most western civilizations mark an important turning point during the period of the 1800s due to the
Industrial Revolution , those who romanticize the Antebellum South credit the widespread destruction of Sherman's March to the Sea from Atlanta to theAtlantic Ocean and the military occupation of the defeated Confederacy by Union forces during the period termed Reconstruction implemented inFlorida ,Tennessee , or theTrans-Mississippi states, instead.More than any other single American work,
Margaret Mitchell 's 1936 novel, "Gone with the Wind " and the subsequent 1939 film, have permanently altered historical perspective and fixed a slanted popularized image of pre-Civil War American history and are good examples of the romanticized view. The romanticized view looks back on the Antebellum Period with sentimental nostalgia, as an idealized pre-industrial highly-structured genteel and stable agrarian society, in contrast to the anxiety and struggle of modern life. The issue of slavery is largely ignored in Gone with the Wind — although Mitchell does make a point of examining the relationship between the slaves and their masters on the southern plantations.D. W. Griffith 's 1915 film, "The Birth of a Nation ," romanticized the pre-war South in a very similar way.Architecture
The term "antebellum" is also used to describe the architecture of the pre-war South. Many Southern plantation houses use this style, including:
*Monmouth Plantation (Natchez, Mississippi) [ [http://www.monmouthplantation.com/ Welcome To Monmouth Plantation] ]
*Boone Hall (Mount Pleasant, South Carolina) Built in 1936, but in the antebellum style.
*The Hermitage (Tennessee)
*Longwood (Natchez, Mississippi)
*Nottoway Plantation
*Orton Plantation
*Rosedown Plantation
*Oak Alley Plantation
*Belle Meade Plantation
*Waverly Mansion
*Carnton Plantation
*Waveland Plantation
*Rippavilla Plantation
*Rattle & Snap Plantation
*Tara Plantation (Fictional, From "Gone with the Wind")
*The Old Governor's Mansion [ [http://www2.gcsu.edu/mansion/ Old Governor’s Mansion ] ]
*Candon Hearth See also
*
History of the United States (1789-1849)
*History of the United States (1849-1865)
*Origins of the American Civil War References
External links
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2956.html Antebellum Slavery (PBS)]
* [http://www.connerprairie.org/historyonline/xmas.html Aspects of the Antebellum Christmas]
* [http://docsouth.unc.edu Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]
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