Southern states of United States have always been distinguished by its culture and activities, in antebellum Southern states primary activity was agriculture due to it's climate and soil conditions; Southern states produced tobacco, rice and cotton as their economic activity and this is why they were seen as a rural and agrarian region.
The process is called industrialization because of all the manufacturing jobs created by machines and that is also the beginning off urbanization when many people started to move from farms to cities to seek jobs
