Final answer:
The statement is false; large towns and industries primarily grew in the Northern Colonies, not the Southern ones, which focused on agriculture with large plantations before the Civil War.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that many industries and large towns grew in the Southern Colonies before the Civil War is false. While major industries and the growth associated with them did develop in the eastern half of what would become the United States before the Civil War, they were predominantly concentrated in the northern states and not the southern states.
The southern states were largely agricultural with a focus on large plantations supported by slave labor, growing crops such as cotton and tobacco primarily for export and for the mills of the north, rather than industrialized urban centers. These plantations did not give rise to large towns or industrial growth in the way that was seen in the North with the advent of factories, the steamboat, and the telegraph, which all played crucial roles in the development of industry there.