>>23588314When people mean Southern Belle, they mean the old Southern aristocracy. The old money. Sometimes the old, OLD money. We're talking families who've been in America since before it was America, and who still have wealth from generations of land working. They formed the backbone of the plantation owners, the Revolutionary officers and cavalry corps, the Confederate leadership, etc. Nowadays, contrary to popular thought, they still exist, they still got their old money. It's nothing compared to say, scions of the robber baron clans, but it's enough. And their branch families are also instrumental. The Southern Belles are the gals who know all their manners, and place that known prime on courtesy, manners, grace, etc.
Lest you think they're poor or irrelevant, a person on the lower end of that aristocracy is worth your life ten times over.
