Answer: The South had its capital tied up in land and slaves.
The United States had two very different economies prior to the Civil War. On the one hand, the North was dedicated to a variety of industries, such as manufacturing, finance and commerce. Employees and employers operated under a wage system. However, in the South, the economy was mostly focused on staple crops produced by slave labor. The South's most important crop was cotton, which required more than 4 million African slaves for its production.
The fact that the South had its capital tied up in land and slaves meant that it could not be used as easily as the capital of the North. Moreover, these assets were subject to disruption during the war, as the land was destroyed and the slaves were freed. The Reconstruction period would therefore be more beneficial to the North than to the South.
