The following passage is taken from 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the South, by John Shelton Reed and Dale Volberg Reed (1996). I was delighted to find it but haven't been able to determine the original source from which the Tillett quotation is taken. This is found in item number 944 of the Reeds' book, The Southern lady.
Wilbur Fisk Tillett wrote in 1891 that "American civilization has nowhere produced a purer and loftier type of refined and cultured womanhood than existed in the South before the war....In native womanly modesty, in neatness, grace, and beauty of person, in ease and freedom without boldness of manner, in refined and cultivated minds, in gifts and qualities that shone brilliantly in the social circle, in spotless purity of thought and character, in laudable pride of family and devotion to home, kindred, and loved ones---these were the qualities for which Southern women were noted and in which they excelled."
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