That's an interesting argument. The tension there would have been between Southerners' cultural tendency to defer, inherited from polite colonial society, and their prickly consciousness of their own rights, their own pride, and their self-respect as the heirs of Jefferson and Jackson.
The People described by Alexis DeTocqueville didn't take much off anybody. Insult a man in the Old South, rich or poor, and you might wind up with an Arkansas toothpick or a gentlemanly pistol-ball in your ribs. Being called out under code duello or just getting your ass kicked would have been mostly an accident of the society you were keeping when you screwed up!
those were WILD TIMES! especially in the west. my 87YO mother says, that when she was a girl, the one question that you NEVER asked anyone was, "what was your name in the states????". she said even in the 20s-30s, that was a really GOOD way to start a fight!
i recently found that "The Yellow Rose of Texas", a stunningly beautiful "freewoman of colour" had at LEAST SIX (6) men killed in duels over her, TWO (2) men tried for shooting other man because of jealous rage over her & FOUR (4)men who committed suicide, because they couldn't win her love!
she MUST have been SOMETHING to see!
free dixie,sw
Judah P. Benjamin once challenged Jefferson Davis to a duel (both were Senators at the time). Davis did admit that he was wrong, and the duel avoided.