It would seem that life is held rather cheaply in many Southern communities.
Until recently much of the South has remained a frontier, as some of it is to this day, and in frontier communities men are accustomed to take the law into their own hands and are reluctant to depend upon inadequate or ineffective police protection.

Despising physical cowardice, the individual prides himself upon his ability to maintain his rights and to protect his honor without calling for assistance.

Frontiersmen are quick to resent an affront, and when their veracity is impugned they fight.
The word "lie" is not considered a polite mode of expressing dissent.

All over the South, in every class of society, one finds this sensitiveness to an accusation of lack of veracity.

Such a theory of life dies hard.