Akademik

any of the southern states in which slavery was legal prior to the American Civil War

1. : a state of the United States in which Negro slavery was legal until the Civil War — compare free soil

2. : a nation subjected to totalitarian rule

1. any state, nation, etc., where slavery is legal or officially condoned.

2. Slave States, U.S. Hist. the states that permitted slavery between 1820 and 1860: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

[1800-10, Amer.]

slave state,

1. one of the Slave States.

2. a country ruled by absolute authority; dictatorship.

(also slave state) n. historical any of the Southern states of the U.S. in which slavery was legal before the Civil War

noun, pl ⋯ states [count]

: a state of the U.S. in which slavery was legal until the American Civil War

slave state [slave state] noun

(in the US) any state that had slaves before and during the ↑American Civil War. The term was especially important when new states were established as either free states or slave states, as in the ↑Missouri Compromise. Most slave states were in the South, but several northern states had slaves early in their history.