The image above shows a wealthy plantation in the South where landowners also owned slaves and produced cash crops.

The thirteen original colonies had 3 different regions: 1) New England included the colonies Massachusetts, Rhoad Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and 2) Middle colonies were New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and 3) the southern colonies were Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The economy in New England was based on shipbuilding, fishing, and lumbering. In the Middle it was Shipbuilding, small farms, trading and banking. The Southern economy was more plantations, cash crops (tobacco), Indentured servants and slaves. The Society in New England was made up of religious puritans and dissidents who formed small town democracies and farms. The Middle was different because it was diverse and socially tolerant with a middle class.  An example of tolerant religious settlers would be the Quakers of Pennsylvania. The Southerners were less religious in the beginning as they cared more about making money.   Wealthy Cavaliers invested in land ownership and had close ties to England’s Anglican church and nobility.these differences did not go away over time.

In 1800s their were large differences between the North and the South. The northern and southern states were socially and economically different from each other and these differences led to Civil War.   The south was mainly known for it’s agriculture and farming and the north was known for It’s factories and growing  industries.

The North produced lumber and textiles, the South produced cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugar. The Southern Economy was built on the labor of African American Slaves. Southerns favored low tariffs because this kept the cost of imported goods low on the other side Northerns preferred high tariffs because their exported goods to the south would be more expensive and beneficial to the northern economy. The North wanted to get rid of slavery ! While the South wanted to keep slavery.

The people of the south were also denied jobs by the people in the north because the southern people were thought of as stupid.  In some ways this stereotype is present today. Regardless of this, some people were very wealthy in the south as compared to the growing numbers of working poor in the north.

Most new immigrants decided to move into the north because most preferred jobs in growing cities compared with the farming of the south.  The north had a large advantage when it came to the House of Representatives because of its growing population. The only fair way was to leave it to the Senate because unlike the house it had an equal number of people from each state.  In a way the South has had a history of ignoring the national government at times if it felt the laws did not apply.  This was one reason South Carolina seceded from the Union in 1861

http://apushistorycase.wikispaces.com/Economic+Differences+between+the+North+and+the+South+colonies