Factors that promoted development in the South America

Factors that promoted development in the South America

Development in the South

Prior to the American civil war, agricultural economics had picked up in the South. The region was largely recognized as the cotton kingdom due to the extensive cotton fields that were mainly supervised by gangs. Agriculture was the main economic activity in the region and it facilitated a lot of development. Some of the factors that allowed agricultural economics to do well in this region included;

Geography; most of the farming in the cotton fields were done by the black slaves. The slaves were mainly from western Africa and they could be brought into the South through the southern ports (Goldfield 23). As such, the geographical location of the South made it easier for the region to obtain labor. In addition, the produce from the farms could be exported to other parts of the world through these southern ports.
Political leadership; although the free blacks and the whites from the North advocated against the slavery system, legislatures from the South made efforts to make the system less vulnerable (Brinkley 18). For instance, they developed codes that obliged slaves to be submissive to their owners.
Manpower; the free labor provided by slaves in the cotton plantations ensured that the region was able to produce a substantial amount of farm produce at a relatively low cost (Gordon 12). The manpower therefore worked as an advantage in promoting development in the South.
Industrial capacity; alongside agriculture, industrialization was also picking up in the South. The railway lines opened up the region for development (Brinkley 24). In addition, processing of the farm produce was mainly done by machineries.
Relative strength of central government; the central government did what was within its capacity to ensure that the South was protected from any foreign invasion and this ensured stability in the region.

Work Cited

Goldfield, David. Still fighting the civil war: The American south and southern history. LSU Press, 2013.

Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People, Volume I. Vol. 11. McGraw-Hill, 2015.

Gordon, Robert J. The rise and fall of American growth: The US standard of living since the civil war. Princeton University Press, 2016.