sabotabby | (Reply)

From:

princealberic.livejournal.com

The phrase "I'd rather be a rebel than a slave" has its origins in the UK in the early 20th Century. It simply doesn't have US 'rebels' in mind. It was also stated at a time when slavery had been illegal in Britain for 100 years. To connect the term "rebels" specifically with the civil war and "slave" specifically with African Americans is to ignore the context of the phrase. In that phrase the rebels are suffragettes, women seeking equality and opposing gender roles, while the slaves are women, who were still treated as if they were the property of their husbands.

And this right here is the problem with that phrase