What was true of the South and slavery in nineteenth-century America?

In nineteenth-century America, slavery played an important economic, political, and social role in the southern United States. During this period, the South relied heavily on slave labor to provide the primary labor source for cotton, tobacco, and other crops. This labor was used to build roads, railroads, and cities. Furthermore, political power in the South relied in large part on the existence of the slave system, as well as the complex network of laws and customs that protected slavery. The economic, political, and social benefits of slavery to the South were so entrenched that it became an integral part of southern life.