Question

How did most people in the south earn a living?

Answer 1

Selling cotton to the North or to other European nations such as Britain. Some however sold their lands to large plantation owners for a hefty sum.

Although to be frank, you never specified which people and/or what time period. I'd be happy to answer properly if you provided a more detailed question.

Answer 2

In the southern United States, the majority of the population was employed in agricultural and livestock farming tasks, that is, in rural work. Although a large number of landowners had extensive tracts of land and slave labor to exploit them, the majority of the southern population was not in this situation, but had small fields, which they had to cultivate and harvest themselves to be able to subsist.