Answer:
One helpful statistic we can use is the amount of enslaved people per county, in the year 1860, just a year before the American Civil War.
Explanation:
This statistic can be used as a proxy to determine the counties were cotton had the highest production, because cotton was a cash crop grown in large plantations that were worked by enslaved African Americans.
Several counties had 80% or more slaves as percentage of the total population, meaning that they were overwhelmingly black. The majority of these counties were located in the Mississippi Delta, in the state of the same name, in the Black Belt of Alabama and Georgia, and in southern South Carolina.
B is the right answer. All of the other options would show a decrease in the emphasis on knowledge and education.
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