There were many cultural and economic differences, I'm sure, but were any drastic enough to play into the conflict that became the Civil War? I wrote a paper regarding the mid-1800's earlier this semester and now I am genuinely curious about this topic.
Check out this thread in faq here. It gives you a pretty solid answer. In a nutshell, slavery was the foundation for Southern society and had a hand in just about every aspect of their society. Without it, I don't know if it's possible to say if the South would have split, but my inclination is to say no.