Question

Why do you think cotton was so important to the south's economy?

Answer 1

Even after the abolition of slavery, the high labor demands of cotton as a crop gave rise to sharecropping, which made virtual slaves of poor southerners of all races. Indeed, for some the poverty seemed more ruinous than out-and-out slavery had been, indeed some have not escaped to this day.

Answer 2

Cotton was important to the South because cotton production was integral not only to the Southern economy, but also to overall U.S. economic prosperity in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The cotton economy of the South prolonged slavery as an institution and as a result helped give rise to the American Civil War.