Need help with Southern dialect (American)

[justcarol67]

Hi, Potioncat and anyone else from below the Mason-Dixon line. I'm editing a book in which the narrator speaks a rural Southern dialect. I need to know when to use "done" with the past tense, as in "I done made the bed." Is "done" equivalent to "had" ("I had made the bed"--past perfect tense indicating a previously completed action in contrast to simple past tense, "I made the bed")? Or does it emphasize that something has been done ("I done already made the bed")? (I remember once hearing someone in North Carolina say, "It done been settled," meaning "it has already been settled.") Are both these uses correct? Am I missing some other use of "done" in this dialect? I appreciate any help you can give me.

Please don't respond unless you're a bona fide American Southerner.

Thanks in advance,
Carol, who recalls numerous other colorful Southernisms but unfortunately none that can help me with this particular problem