In 1858, Senator Andrew Johnson issued the following data in his report to the United States Senate:
"Daily wages for bricklayers in New Orleans and Charleston averaged $3. Wages for bricklayers in Chicago and Pittsburg was $1.50.
Carpenters in New Orleans/Charleston earned $2.50 a day.
The same in Chicago/Pittsburg earned $1.50.
General laborers in these Southern cities earned $1.25. Their counterparts in the North earned $.75.
In 1860, the per capital income for Southern wage earners was $150 as compared with $142 for the North. See here
Consider yourself proved wrong.
Those numbers are interesting if accurate which coming from a Democrat are always suspect. However, you also need to know how many days the workers were working to get an idea of actual income. And we know that the Northern cities where growing very rapidly and using a lot of labor.
Your link does not show me to be wrong in any way but, in fact, verifies what I said the per capita income in the North was $141 and in the South $103. And, if you had the median income figures there would be an even greater disparity between the regions.
According to those numbers the only region of the South which exceeded the National average was the West South Central region. I suppose this would be Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi. There the income was much higher than in any other regions presumably because of the rich lands along the River.
Nice try though.