The main attraction was the possibility of having slaves, since the owners of farms needed cheap and very abundant labor. Precisely this great attraction of owning slaves and being able to cultivate enromes quantities of land, was what would lead to the American Civil War; being the slavery, the first reason of the great growth of the southern wealth, thanks to its enormous plantations of cotton and tobacco; but after the war, this was the reason why the southern states suffered economic crises and had to request loans from the Federal Government for reconstruction; also that the very loss of the slaves led to the economic problems of the South.