As I said to cyborg, most of what people say about the South and Southerners is not true, but stereotypically is believed up North, (Southerners are bigots, racist, mean, inclined to fight in bars, Etc. ) While real Southerners are the first to say the institution of slavery was a mistake and so was segregation. And the southerners in the bars are friendly, like to dance, and like to drink -- all the while saying "yes sir" and "yes ma'am" and being the most cordial people you could want to meet.
I love the south. Always have, always will.
I expect that's the way antebellum southern middle class white people were too. Those not in the power structure, not owning slaves, etc. Tell you what, Plantation Owners might have put forth a legal fiction about blacks being not quite human or whatever, in the same way that women were a subclass, but I'm pretty sure you didn't have to be around them too long to realize what a bunch of crap it was in reality.