Which word means prior to the war?

"Antebellum" means "before the war," but it wasn't widely associated with the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) until after that conflict was over. The word comes from the Latin phrase "ante bellum" (literally, "before the war"), and its earliest known print appearance in English dates back to the 1840s.

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answer: common sense was the pamphlet that thomas paine used to convince reluctant americans to abandon the goal of reconciling with britain and to accept that independence was the only option to preserve their liberty.