America: The Glorious Republic After the Revolutionary War, the agricultural economy of the South declined and southern planters began looking for a new crop to bring about a return of prosperity. Then, as a result of the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton cultivation spread throughout the region. In the years before 1830, many Southerners deplored the institution of slavery. Reform-minded religious groups called for its abolition. Even some southern states debated its merits. As cotton became the South’s most important crop and as the need for field hands grew, however, many of these voices were stilled. Increasingly, cotton and slavery came to dominate southern life.
—Graff, Henry.
America:
The Glorious Republic. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Print

19.
Which of the following events happened first?
a)
Cotton became the South’s most important crop.
b)
The agricultural economy of the South declined.
c)
Cotton and slavery came to dominate southern life.
d)
Cotton cultivation spread throughout the region.
I was thinking of C.. I might be wrong.. >_>;;