Industrialization further deepened the divisions among the sections in the United States, particularly between North and South. Although it did develop some manufacturing and mining, the South's economy was agricultural, and the industrial North's as well as European demand for its products, especially cotton, gave it no reason to change. The importance of cotton cultivation, however, had a number of consequences, among the most significant being that it kept the South rural and fostered a dependence on slave labor. The South's capital was tied up in land and slaves, and thus could not be used to develop industry or even transportation or marketing mechanisms for its crops, so the real profits from cotton went to northern merchants or middle men. Moreover, many plantations were for the most part self-sufficient, meaning that society was less interdependent. Slavery also had tangible social effects on whites: it made poor southerners regard work for others as servitude, reinforced male dominance, and kept them on a constant state of alert to the threat of insurrections. Meanwhile, in the North, westward expansion delivered raw material and markets, and corporations provided capital for the growth of industry. Such growth led to further technological innovations and economic expansion, but while machines increased production and made some wealthy, machines also helped to create a poor and unskilled working class, often immigrant, that shared few of the benefits of mechanization. For all of its industry, however, America still remained in these years primarily an exporter of raw materials and importer of finished goods; Great Britain was the major trading partner. American transportation also continued to improve, as steamships began crossing the Atlantic quickly and affordably (often bringing more immigrants back with them); internally, canals proliferated. The most significant transportation development, though, was the railroad, which could determine patterns of settlement and quite literally put towns and cities on the map. Financed primarily by private capital but also enjoying legislative and monetary support of local municipalities, the railroads spread throughout the North and Midwest, even further integrating the regions’ economies. The South lagged behind in its own railroads.
