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Personal government was the most important thing in Celtic society. You had to have very strong personal leadership. And so, when I talk about building the will and this independence streak, this immense freedom that people had — I mean that played a role in the way they looked at government.

Your clans and your small communities were more important than the central authority. So, just like in Cavalier society where your plantation was your country and then you had your county and then you had your state and then your central authority — that’s exactly the way the Celtics people looked at it, too. You had your clan or small community, then you might have your county, then you might have your state, your central authority. And so these clans, this small local government was more important than anything else.

So this tradition of small, local government in the South had nothing to do with slavery early on. I mean that’s what the Left would like you to think. “Oh, it’s just all slavery. That’s why these people want state’s rights or local government. They just want to perpetuate slavery.” Well, this goes all the way back to the Colonial period. You know, the respect for local authority, for local autonomy, independence. You know, fighting tyranny by armed resistance — that’s what Patrick Henry was saying in his very famous Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech. That was important. And that comes out of culture.

Brion McClanahan

Liberty Classroom, U.S. History to 1877, The Southern Colonies and the Celts, ~19:40