I never heard of that specific issue but I am well aware that many industrialists in the 19th century were irresponsible “Robber Barons” as you describe and I have no doubt that they were more common in the North where industry was more concentrated while the Southern economy was largely agrarian. I can offer no more than poorly-informed speculation for how that state of affairs came about in the first place so I shouldn’t even try.
It came about as a result of the Hamiltonian view of the role of government which advocated that government be used as a tool to make industries prosperous.
The Jeffersonian view was that government governs best which governs the least.
The Hamiltonian view urged protectionist tariffs that benefited Northern manufacturing over Southern agriculture.
And that is how they became so powerful.