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The cultural-economic origins of the various regions of Texas were quite
different. As the southern economy was dominated by agriculture, the major
difference between the Lower and Upper South pertained to farming. The south
was economically dominated by the plantation type of agriculture. The economic
systems can also be differentiated by the higher proportion of slaves in lower
southern areas. Cotton had in this connection an emphasis as the dominant cash
crop. In contrast, the Upper south was primarily the domain of slaveless yeomen
farmers, an area largely without cotton and other subtropical cash crops. The
economy was characterized by wheat as a major cash crop, and a food surplus in
corn and small grains for trade. In other words, the Upper south also left a
distinctive mark on the land they settled. Being the first settlers of Texas
they were later forced to seek land in the Blackland prairie.
Texas was no longer within the domain of the Blackland prairie: the census
shows a growing lower southern population. And after the Civil war, as transportion
improved, and new markets advanced the south developed in many ways a characteristic
social organization and a characteristic southern culture.
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