Why did New England become the national center for textile manufacturing during the antebellum period?

Answer 1

By the middle of the century, the South provided the bulk of cotton used in New England and British textile factories. Inventions, patents, and production of machinery for other kinds of agriculture followed the developments in cotton.

Answer 2

This was due in part to declining production of raw cotton in the south, the inability for many of the manufacturers to diversify, and to many other economic factors. Textile mills like the very large Amoskeag Mills in Manchester NH continued until as late as 1936. After several years of difficulty, flooding caused by the hurricane in 1936 finally brought the Amoskeag to the end of its days.