[Bubba Ho-Tep]

At the time, agriculture on a large scale was being done by slaves and the south was an agrarian society.

So was the Midwest, but somehow they managed to plant and harvest without slaves.

[okie01]

<So was the Midwest, but somehow they managed to plant and harvest without slaves. /I>

There are high-labor crops, there are low-labor crops.

Indigo, tobacco, cotton are examples of the former; grain crops in general constitute the latter -- while animal forage requires even less labor.

As a rule, the former are better suited to the climatic and soil conditions in the south, while the latter were ideally suited to the Midwest.

In other words, the agricultural Midwest didn't necessarily conscientiously choose to avoid slavery; instead, there was no economic need for it.