Since slavery was outlawed, the new Southern economy was focused on a new system called sharecropping.
Sharecropping is a system in which a plantation or farm owner rents out part of their land to an individual. This individual then pays the plantation owner with some of the crops they are able to produce. Once the tenant is able to pay off the plantation owner, all the rest of the products created can be used for their own personal use.
This system allows for the continued development of crops like cotton and tobacco on Southern plantations.