As for being "more moral" in the South than in the North, it depends upon what, precisely, you are looking at.
When I drive in the South, I notice a lot more billboards, graphic billboards, along the interstate highway for 24-hour "adult bookstores". One can drive a hundred miles and see 10 to 20 signs advertising some such store at a particular exit. Then, after driving another hour, it all starts again for another pornography retailer. These are very large, graphic, signs with pictures of scantily clad women on them. They are impossible to ignore and not see.
While I have seen such stores in the North, all that I have seen along the interstate (mostly in Ohio and Pennsylvania) are marked with a word only sign and no billboards along the approach (at least, not ones I have ever noticed). If they do exist, they are unobtrusive and easily missed.
I have often wondered why the so-called "Bible-Belt" tolerated such explicit displays of pornography for miles upon miles while the Northern liberal meccas precluded such advertising along the interstate. I would have thought it would be the other way around, but the fact is, it isn't.
This is just one example. While I'm sure that others can provide examples where the appearance of morality is reversed, I simply don't think that the South is "more moral" than the North. It just depends upon what issue of morality one is focusing upon.