What happend as agriculture entrenched in the south?

As agriculture entrenched in the South, particularly through the cultivation of cash crops like cotton and tobacco, the region became heavily reliant on an agrarian economy. This reliance led to the establishment of a plantation system that depended on enslaved labor, exacerbating social and economic inequalities. The wealth generated from agriculture contributed to a distinct Southern identity and fostered resistance to industrialization, while also deepening the sectional divide with the North, ultimately contributing to the tensions that led to the Civil War.