sowser has previously answered What role did slavery have in the industrial revolution, if any?

/u/Red_Galiray has previously answered a question about infrastructure in the antebellum South

More answers would be welcome, since this is a complex question.

EDIT: First answer was a dead link.

I think it is important to remember that the nation depended on the stolen labor of enslaved Africans and African Americans during the 19th century. Enslavement allowed for the cheaper procurement of raw material that could be processed and sold and provide economic power to the national economy (in some occasions, as enslaved labor for coal was not always deemed profitable). Some historians argue that slave labor in the America's and West Indies provided the funds to fuel the Industrial Revolution. The policy of African enslavement isn't limited to the United States South, after all. But this could lead to an entire discussion on capitalism and its influence on American history.

It is often cited in popular history that the South was pro-slavery and the North was anti-slavery. The North was very much a racist apartheid state in many areas. This includes riots and protests up into the 20th century over bussing and schooling. Like the South, the North was not unified during the Civil War (it wasn't initially a war to end slavery at the beginning). It is also important to remember that two societies when to war in 1861, not two armies. The South was very much its own society, but that does not mean that the United States was not largely unified in its belief that Africans and African Americans were beneath white Europeans. It is also important to point out that the South carries the stigma of being an agrarian society when in reality both parts of the country were significantly rural with large amounts of small farms, substance farming, and smaller local/regional markets. Additionally, portions of the South employed white women and children alongside enslaved black labor.

So, did the South refuse to industrialize solely because of enslaved labor? Kind of and I really hate to be vague. Regionally, you had different areas that were more industrialized (more capable of processing goods into textiles). Then you had the Cotton Kingdom that focused on enslavement and exportation of raw cotton. Certainly, these elite enslavers would have been against anything that threatened their death grip on cheap exploitive labor. BUT not everyone was wealthy enough to enslave dozens of human beings. So, again, it kind of depended on the region. The Appalachians, for example, while also participating in slave labor, did not have the same markets as the Cotton Kingdom in the deep South. But certainly, you could argue that a free market and a society free of enslavement could have produced a more competitive market open to more economic and industrial advancements without the slave-holding elite fighting against emancipation.

Hopefully, you can excuse my lack of sources that I normally include...I'm traveling right now and don't have my bookshelf or articles that I normally keep.