CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION I. Slavery in the South A. Blum - ?What gave the old South its special identity?...Not physical isolation..not a difference in population origin..not contrasts in religious and political philosophy...not even the economics of the North and the South were all together dissimilar...few Southern farmers benefited from the national market economy ...wealth was less evenly distributed...less money was invested in education...fewer towns and industry developed...but all of these were of secondary importance..by far the most significant difference was the presence and survival in the South of Negro slavery..? B. Emerson - ?If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own.??