[Ditto]

Thus shooting many holes in the theory that without the South the North would look like France or Canada.

Maybe without the North, the South would look like Mexico.

[Classicaliberalconservative]

Without the North it is probably the South that would look more like France since pre 1789 France and pre 1865 South had some of the same chracteristics. A landed aristocracy hostile to industry and commerce, a class based society with clear boundaries etc. Any change from that would result in European class style politics defined through a worker vs paternalistic conservatism dialectic as in many European states. Statism and socialism that is the result. It is the northeast that keeps America to its free market and classical liberal live and let live traditions.