Question

Following the Civil War, the South's industrialization lagged behind that of the North's because

Answer 1

In the South, they lagged behind the North in urbanization and industrialization, mainly because of its dependence on slavery and the domination of plantation owners in the state governments during the antebellum period. ... Railroads led the South's industrial expansion.

Answer 2

All of the South’s money was tied up in the slave economy/trade and after they lost the war and slavery was abolished they basically had to rebuild their economy while the north already had more factories and railroads (which is one reason they won the war as northern soldiers didn’t have to march to all the battles, they could take the trains most of the way while the confederate soldiers had to walk) but yeah, there was a lot more farms in the south and they had slaves do their work for them so they had no need for industrial stuff at the time