南部种植的另一种作物是水稻，它起源于马达加斯加，18世纪初由西班牙人引进(柏林，1993年)。由于奴隶们对水稻栽培有先见之明，许多栽培者利用了这一点，引进他们到乔治敦、萨凡纳和查尔斯顿的许多水稻种植园工作。种植园主从奴隶那里学到了几项新技术，包括如何淹没田地和堤坝(Kolchin, 2007)。由乔纳森·卢卡斯发明的水磨是用来为水磨提供动力的。自19世纪中期以来，在阿肯色州、路易斯安那州和得克萨斯州，水稻种植一直是一种重要的农业类型(维基百科，2007)。17世纪末之后，南北经济开始分化。南方更注重出口农作物，而北方更注重粮食生产。弗吉尼亚州和北卡罗来纳州的上殖民地建立在烟草生产上，佐治亚州和南卡罗来纳州的下殖民地集中在水稻生产上(Bonacich, 1975)。此外，南方大部分地区没有像北方那样经历过工业化，而且大部分仍是农村地区。1860年，南方只有五个城市的人口超过5万。
Another type of crop that was cultivated in the South was rice which originated from Madagascar and was brought in by the Spanish at the beginning of the 18th Century (Berlin, 1993). Due to the slaves having prior knowledge of rice culture, many cultivators took advantage of this by importing them to work at the many rice plantations in Georgetown, Savannah and Charleston. The plantation owners learned several new techniques from the slaves that included how to flood the fields and dyke the marshes (Kolchin, 2007). There was an increase in popularity and profitability of rice cultivation when the rice mill, where water was used to power the mill, was invented by Jonathan Lucas. Rice cultivation has continued to be an important type of agriculture in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas since the mid 19th Century (Wikipedia, 2007). Following the late 17th century, the North and South started to diverge in economies. The South was emphasizing more on exporting their crops whereas the North was more on food production. The upper colonies of Virginia and North Carolina were established in tobacco production and the lower colonies of Georgia and South Carolina were focused on rice production (Bonacich, 1975). In addition, much of the South did not go through the industrialization like the North did and it remained mostly rural. In 1860 there were only five southern cities that had more than 50,000 people.