Definition of "free-soil" [free•-soil]

• Prohibiting slavery: free-soil states. (adjective)
• Opposing the extension of slavery before the U.S. Civil War. (adjective)
• Of or being a U.S. political party founded in 1848 to oppose the extension of slavery into U.S. territories and the admission of slave states into the Union. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "All of the organized territories were likely to become free-soil states, which increased the Southern movement toward secession."
• "“To the free-soil town of Lawrence,” replied Papa."
• "In his “house divided” speeches he made it clear that he thought that the country must either become all slave owning or all free-soil with free-soil being his preference."