The "southern belle", or just "belle," was a colloquialism for a wealthy white unmarried woman in the planter class, particularly in the Antebellum South. The belle became a popular archetype, and, al
Sallie Ward (1827-1896), a Kentucky socialite and southern belle
Publicity still for Gone With the Wind (1939) depicting Vivien Leigh in character as Scarlett O'Hara
Southern belle, lithography after a painting by Erich Correns (c. 1850)
Cover illustration of Harper's Weekly from September 7, 1861 showing a southern belle