In the US, much of the growth of industry happened in the North. However, Virginia (which at the time I'm looking included West Virginia), has large supplies of coal and iron.
What I'm trying to do is make Virginia more part of the north than part of the south, and to do that I think I need to shift the focus from agriculture to industry (probably using slaves still however, at least at first). What are some cities or towns that could become large industrial hubs, like what happened to Manchester in England? I imagine that they could be right on the modern Virginia-West Virginia border, right? They also would need to be on some form of river, to move the materials. The mountains are a problem, but with a series of dams, locks, and canals, that shouldn't be too big of an issue.