Question

Which characteristic of Southern society prior to the Civil War contributed most to the region's reliance on slavery?


The agricultural economy based on cash crops like cotton and tobacco


The industrialization of Southern cities


The lack of fertile land for farming


The widespread abolitionist movement in the South

Answer 1

The agricultural economy based on cash crops like cotton and tobacco.

Because the South’s plantation system depended on labor-intensive cash-crop farming (especially after the cotton gin made cotton highly profitable), landowners relied on enslaved labor to plant, tend, and harvest large-scale crops. The other options are incorrect: the South was not highly industrialized, it had plenty of fertile land for these crops, and abolitionism was not widespread there.