The economy of the US Southern States was based on agriculture. Cotton and tobacco were the main crops for decades, including colonial America to the present.
As the US Civil War unfolded, the economy of the Confederate states was based on agriculture. The main crops they farmed were cotton, tobacco and rice.
The major states in the Southern US (determined by population, economy, etc.) are Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia.
The economy in the Northern states was in the process of improving its industrial base and also had farmlands that grew such grains as wheat. It was perfectly balanced to wage a war. On the other hand, the economy of the South was heavily based on agriculture. There was little industry in the South.
The Southern Colonies were of an agrarian economy, so they worked in agriculture, which called for plantations for the crops and the slaves to work on the crops. This became so deeply rooted that this is why the Southern Colonies that were soon to be the Southern States wished for slavery to be legal in the US.
Cotton and cotton alone. That's why they needed so many foreign imports, so when the Northern-dominated Congress raised the tariff on imported goods (to protect US manufacturing industry, which was all in the North), the Southern states saw it as a hostile tax on the South.
In the period lading up to the US Cvil War, the North had an emerging industrial economy. The South remained a plantation based agricultural economy with much less industrial capability than the North.
During our US Civil War of 1861-1865, the northern states were industrialized (and were able to produce war material, such as rifles and revolvers (musket & pistols) for the Union Army (US Army), etc.) and the Southern States were less industrialized, and were more of an "Agriculture" based economy (raising cotton, and tobacco, etc.) which is why the South had to "import" their rifles/muskets from Europe (which consequently caused the Union (US Navy) to blockade the South, which in turn created "Blockade Runners", etc.). South Vietnam was an "Agriculture" based economy, while the US is predominately an industrial economy (actually the US is strong in both economies).
civil war
It was especially important for the southern US states and basically the reason for the Civil War. The southern States' economy almost totally depended on their cotton production and export. The southern USA was the #1 provider of cotton to the world, and that level of production and the need to keep prices competitive made slave labor necessary. During the Civil War cotton exports dwindled to almost nothing, and after the war the Southern States found that India and Egypt had taken over the cotton market. The loss of the cotton income made the southern States the poorest of the US, a situation that would endure until the economic boom that was WW 2.
Prior to the US Civil War, the Southern economy was primarily based on its cotton crop. This was a major plus for the entire US economy in 1860 for example. Cotton was shipped to Europe and also to Northern textile mills.
The economy of the states is what makes up the economy of the country. If Indiana is benefitting, then so is the United States.
No, but there are 13 Southeast states of the US.