I haen't asked for a Golden Age back that I recall. I think your stats are interesting but they do not take into account Population density. Large parts of the South in 1865 were not cultivated for crops....the Mississippi Delta for example which is now arguably the highest priced large plot agro-land in the country....outside of orange groves or tobacco allotment parcels. I would not argue that the wealth in the South was more highly concentrated nor that Slavery was an instituition that deserved to die.
Next time let's do some demographics on Northern Urban demographics....hell, forget the past...let's do one on today's thriving Northern Urban areas. Now who's fault would that be? Have you been to the South Bronx or Bed/Sty or South Chicago lately? How is the South from 150 years ago responsible for that squalor?