Most of the South's postwar industrial growth came from a. cotton mills. b. the manufacture of finished products. c. canal building. d. shipbuilding.

The correct answer is:

a. Cotton Mills

During the Reconstruction Era, Cotton became a protagonist in the industrial growth of the Southern States. Southern capitalists sank Money into cotton rather than factories or land. More precisely, they invested in slaves; the average slave owner held almost two-thirds of his wealth in slaves in 1860, much less than he held in land.