[Sergio]

Here, here. First one to bring up this point.

Link to time line of mechanized farming in America.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfarm1.htm

Rather than buying the slaves, the north should have offered discount pricing on mechanized farming equipment to southern farmers. This would have killed off slavery faster than anything else.

The reasons the south was using slaves was because, at the time, it was the cheapest way to farm. Give them a cheaper way to farm and what need would they have for slaves?

[NVDave]

That would have addressed the situation fully. The only trouble was, the mechanization wasn’t ready to handle things like cotton harvesting yet, and there’s never been a completely mechanized way to handle tobacco. Unless people were willing to wait another, oh, 50 years for the level of mechanization to reach the point where southern crops would really be mechanized, it would not have worked.

[Second Amendment First]

Rather than buying the slaves, the north should have offered discount pricing on mechanized farming equipment to southern farmers. This would have killed off slavery faster than anything else.

Now that's an innovative solution. And thanks for the link.