Final answer:
The dominance of plantation-based agriculture in the southern colonies, particularly with crops like cotton that required intensive labor, made slavery more central to their economies than to the economies of the northern colonies.
Step-by-step explanation:
Slavery played a larger role in driving economic expansion in the southern colonies than those further north primarily because the southern colonies' economies depended more heavily on agriculture. Crops such as cotton, rice, and tobacco, which were predominantly grown in the South, required extensive labor, which was provided by enslaved people. These crops were also crucial to the global market, and the plantation economy benefited significantly from the institution of slavery. In the Deep South, slavery was deeply entrenched, with a large number of slaveholders and enslaved individuals. Contrary to the South, the North's economy did not benefit similarly from slavery, and many in the North opposed slavery on moral grounds. Economic interests tied to the plantation economy and the cotton boom solidified the South's reliance on slavery, making it essential to their way of life and prosperity.