Final answer:
The planter elite was one of the key social groups in antebellum southern society, characterized by wealthy plantation owners who held economic and political power and maintained proslavery ideologies to uphold their status.
Step-by-step explanation:
One of the four social groups in the antebellum southern society was the planter elite. This group included wealthy plantation owners, such as the aristocratic gentry in the Upper South and an elite group of slaveholders in the Deep South who gained much of their wealth from cotton production. Individuals like South Carolinian Nathaniel Heyward, who held a significant number of enslaved persons and vast estates, exemplify this group. The planter elite forged a culture of genteel lifestyles, upheld their own ideas of honor and class, and fought to protect the institution of slavery, the foundation of their economic power.
Slavery played a central role in these dynamics, as the majority of the enslaved were owned by a small number of white elites. This ownership was not just economic but also contributed to a particular social order based on racial domination and a sense of superiority over both enslaved Africans and poorer white citizens. Within southern White society, the planter elite stood at the top, wielding economic and political influence and setting standards for White manhood and womanhood.