To be blunt the Southern Aristocracy was lazy and close minded. By that I mean if they had adopted the Northern Factory approach to labor management they would have voluntarily gave up slavery. Look at how the workers in the factories of the North were treated; they worked for pennies, worked man-killing hours, children in the factories because of their small size let them move among the machinery, and if they were hurt, maimed or killed on the job, simply mop up the mess and move on to another poor Pole, German or Mick. The Factory owners didn't feed, house, clothe or medicate their employees. The used them up and replaced them.
It wasn't until Reconstruction forced the share-cropping system on Southern landowners that many realized their mistake. Share-cropping was as much a form of slavery as the Ante-Bellum south ever saw. It was economic slavery, dare I say even serfdom. And the beauty of the Share-cropping system was the work force was expanded to include poor rural whites. Often the families of the very men that made up the bulk of the front line infantry of the Confederate Army.
Argue amongst yourselves.
