Amazon has an item for $70 that you MUST have for your business. Walmart sells the same item for $90. Both offer free shipping. Obviously Amazon has by far the better deal.
But suppose the Government places a 50% protective shipping tax on all Amazon's products just before you purchase the product. Walmart items are exempt from the shipping tax. The new price at Amazon is $70 * 1.5 = $105.
Therefore, Amazon's item is now more expensive than Walmart's; and you are out 20 bucks on an item that "you must have" due to the protective tax placed against Amazon products. To make it worse, just before you buy, Walmart decides to increase its price to $100, to take advantage of the situation. So, now you are out $30.
I suppose congratulations are in order; you have discovered the basic unfairness of protective tariffs. Well done for a rare, accurate summary of what was going on at the time.
Now, can you go the next step and explain for us how the same tariffs that were applied to all consumers, north and south, somehow hit the south the hardest?
That was the economic situation that plagued the Southern exporters. Raw cotton is a nice product, but it is not fabric, woolen goods, wagon wheels, and other items the Southern farmers needed, but did not produce themselves.
No, that is the economic situation that hit Southern consumers. And Northern consumers and consumers in the Great Lakes states and the Midwest. Southern exporters were not dependent on imports to do their business. There were no import duties on slaves that were illegally imported. Cotton seed was not imported. Cotton gins were not manufactured overseas. Southern states imported little, northern states consumed the bulk of imports. So tariffs had no impact on southern exports. Your claim to the contrary is ridiculous.
Congratulations you are both wrong about tariffs. You stopped your little anti American worker story only half way through to completion. The situation is DYNAMIC and not STATIC. What happens after the price goes up is more domestic suppliers come on line because the profit margin is now artificially high. So the price pressure is now downward after the tariff with more Americans working/producing for a living and paying taxes. Get it? You do believe in the laws of supply and demand?