<p>A century and a half of the U.S. economy, from the railroad revolution to the information revolution</p>
<p><span class="deck"> Having given slavery a new lease on life, he then made Northern triumph inevitable</span> </p>
<p>The highly lucrative cotton crop of 1860 emboldened the South to challenge the economic powerhouse of the North</p>
<p>New England industrialists hired thousands of young farm girls to work together in early textile mills—and spawned a host of unintended consequences.</p>
