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Slavery is very economically inefficient. The biggest period of growth in the U.S was after the US abolished slavery during the Gilded Age (1890s) when race relations were quite good, as good as they had been until at least the early 80s. Slaves can't do anything but very basic work and cost a lot to maintain. The productivity of slaves is horrible too. When agricultural prices fall below a certain point as they did in the early 19th century with industrialization its just a big waste of money because a black person working doing skilled or semi-skilled labor earns far more wealth than if he was a slave. The south was certainly far poorer than the North for this reason and England, which was one of the first countries to abolish slavery, did extrordinarily well in the 19th century.

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