Rattle His Chains

This phase seems to have a southern origin. My intuition tells me it refers to chained people. It is used when someone means that must rush someone.
Any ideas?

I thought the expression was, "Who rattled your cage?" referring to someone who gets excited or stirred up about something. The original meaning would point to a caged animal that was quiet until someone shook its cage. I'll look up the other phrase and post what I find.