Final answer:
Large plantations in the A. Lowcountry region of South Carolina held a majority of slaves and generated extreme wealth for the plantation owners. Slavery was deeply rooted in the southern economy, with the cotton industry becoming the most profitable and powerful slave society in history. The immense wealth created by slavery led to a strong defense of the institution and fueled the political power of the planter elite.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the antebellum South, large plantations held a majority of slaves in the state's cash crops, generating extreme wealth for the plantation owners. This was particularly prominent in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina. The planter elite, comprised of wealthy rice and cotton plantation owners, amassed enormous estates and enslaved a significant number of people. Nathaniel Heyward, a wealthy rice planter, enslaved more than eighteen hundred people and left behind an estate worth more than $2 million.
Slavery was deeply rooted in the southern economy before the American Revolution, especially in the Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland, and the Low Country colonies of South Carolina and Georgia. The immense wealth produced by African and African-American slaves created an economic aristocracy and a political ruling class who championed the institution of slavery. These planters defended slavery fervently and gained considerable political power as their wealth grew.
Overall, the cotton kingdom of the South became the most profitable and powerful slave society in world history. By 1860, the South held nearly 4 million slaves worth more than 3 billion dollars, with the cotton industry generating tremendous wealth. This economic success deepened the divide between the North and the South, ultimately leading to the sectional crisis of the nineteenth century.