When Francis Scott Key learned that a friend was being held by the British, he decided to try to arrange his release. Dr. William Beanes had been abducted from his home in Baltimore and was being held on a British warship. Key got a note from President Madison that got him in to see Adm. Cochrane. Cochrane agreed to release Beanes, but the two had to spend the night on the vessel. Key had a front row seat for the British bombardment of Ft. McHenry. The fort had a massive American flag flying above it. The flag had 15 stars and 15 stripes (at the time Congress was adding stars with new states). The flag had been sewn by Mary Young Pickersgill. As darkness covered the harbor, Key knew that if the flag came down, it was an indication that the fort had surrendered. The fort underwent a bombardment with over 1,500 shells and over 700 Congreve rockets. The British weren’t particularly accurate and the fort was hardly damaged. 4 Americans were killed and 24 were wounded. As the light of dawn broached on Sept. 15, 1814, Key was relieved to see the flag was still flying. He was inspired to write a poem about it on an envelope. He set the poem to an old English drinking song called “To Anacreon in Heaven”. It became “The Star-Spangled Banner”. It did not become the national anthem until 1931 when a researcher for “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” named Doug Storer pointed out we had no national anthem. Songwriters throughout the country tried their hands at composing one, but Storer and others argued for “The Star-Spangled Banner” and Congress agreed.
At the time of its adoption, it was not considered controversial, but recently it has come under attack as a racist song. The fact is Francis Scott Key came from a wealthy plantation owning family. His father did own slaves. And Key had a few as an adult. Key became a lawyer and although he did defend slaves, he was more often employed by slave owners. During the Jackson administration, he was a district attorney who enforced slave laws and prosecuted abolitionists. However, one could argue that a lawyer’s job includes defending unsavory people and causes. Although against abolition, he was a member of the American Colonization Society, which wanted to relocate freed slaves to Liberia. But he did not send any of his own slaves there. Key has been accused of outing himself with his opinion that blacks were “a distinct and inferior race”. It is most likely that he was referring to the opinion of southerners in general, not necessarily himself. Regardless of whether he was a racist, it does seem that the song is not racist.
Most people do not know that the song actually has 4 stanzas. The controversy over the songs supposed racism occurs in the third stanza. Key included the phrase “hireling and slave” and is quite critical of them. Most likely, the term “hireling” refers to British soldiers who fought for pay. “ Slave” is undoubtedly a reference to runaway slaves who had joined the British army. The British had a unit called the Colonial Marines who were hated by white southerners. So, although he was a racist, he does not appear to have put racism into his song.
Here are the other verses:
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust”.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
– Whitcomb 229 / Ayres 33-34
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/10/18/star-spangled-banner-racist-national-anthem/
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/07/us/national-anthem-annotated/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star-Spangled_Banner
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