Answer:
In the South, whose reliance on slave labor was the backbone of their economy, advocates of slavery claimed that the abrupt end to the slave economy would have had devastating economic effects. The cotton industry would go bankrupt. In the fields, the tobacco crop would dry.
By 1840, the South produced 60% of the cotton grown worldwide and contributed 70% of the cotton used by the British textile industry. As a result, a sizable portion of the capital, iron, and manufactured commodities that served as the foundation for American economic expansion were funded by slavery.
The enslavement system was mostly abolished in the North by the 19th century, but it persisted in the South where the economy was based on the usage of slaves. Plantation owners in the south were unwilling to emulate the northern plantation owners since doing so would significantly reduce their profits.