The correct answer to this open question is the following.
The economy of the New South was different from—and similar to—the economy of the past in the following way.
The New South is similar in that the use of labor to work the farmlands continued, not with the use of slaves as before Reconstruction, but with low paid labor that did not have the same rights and growth opportunities and whites had.
Let's remember that before the Civil War and Reconstruction, the economy of the South totally depended on slavery. Wealthy landlords had to use slaves to work in the large southern plantations to produce the kinds of crops that had to be exported to Europe.
After Reconstruction, there was no more slavery in the South, but cruel legislation such as the Jim Crow laws and the black codes severely limited the rights of African Americans.
The economy of the New South is different in that the industry of the North arrived at the South, offering different labor conditions to African Americans that used to depend on working in agriculture. The arrival of industries really changed the agricultural economy of the South, although event today agriculture plays an important role in the South, under different labor conditions.
