The correct answer is B) Political dominance was maintained in the North at the expense of the South based on the Three-Fifths Clause.
The option that most accurately identifies the differences between the North and the South prior to the Civil War was "Political dominance was maintained in the North at the expense of the South based on the Three-Fifths Clause."
The Three-Fifths Clause was the agreement accepted during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in that every slave in the American territory was counted as three-fifths of a person for representation and taxation purposes. This helped the Souther states although the Northern states had more wealth due to the industrial activity and the factories located there. The Southern states based their economy on agriculture and slaves working in the plantations of the south.