What are some economic differences between the Early Northern and Southern colonies?
The major difference between the early Northern and Southern colonies is that the North was populated largely by small farms and larger towns and cities with mercantile and factory-based economies whereas the South was populated by large plantations and had relatively fewer large cities and few factories. By the time the Civil War happened a good portion of the agricultural products produced in the south i.e. cotton, tobacco, and sugar were being shipped to the north for processing in factories and then shipped back down to the south or abroad. The prices northern factories charged the southerners for the goods made with their products was a bone of contention between the two sections of the country that (to some degree) contributed to the rising tension of the period. Another important differences was that the Southern economy was heavily reliant on slave labor. There were slaves used in the northern colonies as well but in much smaller numbers and they weren’t essential to the econom
