America’s national anthem has been a hot-button issue for a while, with more than enough opinions on its impact and meaning. As children, we’re taught to stand and place our hand over our heart when the song plays. As adults, we’re gently reminded to remove our hats. Being labeled as someone who doesn’t “honor the flag” can cost you your career. Ask former NFL-player Colin Kaepernick.
Now that we’ve just marked America’s 248th Birthday, I wanted to shed some light on “The Star-Spangled Banner” and its author, Francis Scott Key. I didn’t learn very much about Key in school, but I grew curious about him back in 2016, when Kaepernick first decided to take a knee during the playing of the song.
At the time, Kaepernick was protesting police brutality and social injustice. Yet, his actions quickly became controversial, with people accusing him of dishonoring the flag and our country’s veterans. While that was never the case, the brouhaha did place more attention on the national anthem itself.
What was this song really about (besides the obvious)? And what kind of man was Francis Scott Key?
Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the War of 1812, a conflict between the United States and Great Britain. He was in his thirties, a wealthy lawyer, who’d come from privilege. Key lived in the ritzy Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC (then called Washington City), a town that held a large population of free Black men and women, as well as enslaved people. The city also housed major markets, where White men could purchase and sell the enslaved.
As an attorney, Key defended Black defendants in court. Conversely, he also owned enslaved men and women, and described Black people as “a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community.”
As a member of the American Colonization Society, Key was an ardent believer of “returning” formerly enslaved people to Africa by establishing a colony for them in Liberia. He believed that freed Black people could never integrate seamlessly into American society, and that their presence would be disruptive and prevent the country from fulfilling its destiny as the “land of the free” for White people. After all, America was supposed to be a place solely for Whites (if only they could figure out how to get rid of those pesky American Indians).
Key was complicated. Some might say he was simply a man of his time. But I would argue that, so were White abolitionists . . .
And BTW, Frederick Douglass called BS on the whole colonization thing. Black Americans had every right to live freely and equally in the country they’d built and were born in, he argued.
Anyway, let’s get back to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Stay with me, here. In the War of 1812, Great Britain’s commanders were offering freedom to any enslaved person who was willing to join the British forces. As you might expect, many of them were like, “Say what now? Hell yeah!” They fled their plantations and began fighting against the US.
At the same time, Key was appointed lieutenant of a hastily thrown-together army of misfits. In preparation for battle, he led his soldiers over to the nearby town of Bladensburg, Maryland, where British troops were advancing. When the US soldiers saw that they were outnumbered and the opposing soldiers had better weapons, they started freaking out.
Key tried to hold the line but his men were like, “Nah, you don’t have any more experience than we do and none of us knows what we’re doing, so we outta here, son!” Key’s men hightailed it out of Bladensburg. Shortly afterward, Lt. Key followed suit. He was said to have “chugged down the dirt road looking sweaty and ridiculous in his blue uniform.”
After that embarrassing episode, Key wanted to redeem himself. He found a way to do so when a friend, William Beanes, was arrested by British soldiers. The soldiers captured Beanes on their march to Baltimore, then held him on one of their ships anchored in the harbor.
When Key learned of the news, he successfully petitioned President James Madison (the two men were acquaintances) and obtained permission to negotiate Beanes’s release. From DC, Key traveled to Baltimore and made it to the ship. However, British officials were kinda busy gearing up for the bombardment of Fort McHenry. They told Key he could come on board to visit his friend, but there would be no negotiation until after their bombing campaign was over.
Now, maybe it’s just me, but I’d be thinking, No way, Jose! I’m not tryin’ to be your next prisoner. Mr. Beanes would’ve been on his own that day. But crazy enough, Key boarded the ship. Remember, he was trying to repair his reputation.
This is where it all came together. During the day and into the evening of September 14, 1814, from his perch on the ship, Key witnessed the attack on Fort McHenry. With all of Great Britain’s military might, it was a sight to see. An extravaganza—cannon fire, bombs bursting in air, and all that good stuff.
Realizing they were no match for the British, US soldiers inside the fort unfurled a humongous American flag and hoisted it above their post. The soldiers then hunkered down during the night until the firing ceased.
Early the next morning, Key looked out at the fort and was surprised to see its walls were still intact and the flag was . . . let’s say it together . . . still there. That experience inspired him to write a song, one of patriotism and bravery.
While on board the ship, he began to scribble some lyrics on the back of a letter. The next day, he completed the song and fastened its roughly 300 words to a popular English tune. He took the song to a local newspaper, where dozens of copies were printed and distributed. When the British retreated from Baltimore a short time later, the area’s ecstatic residents celebrated by singing Key’s song all around town.
I guess you could say, the rest is history. Well, one version of history, perhaps.
Over 1 million Black men and women remained enslaved in the US in 1814. Also, in the third stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the part no one ever wants to talk about, Key makes it clear that he was displeased with the enslaved folks who had the audacity to escape captivity and fight for their freedom:
“No refuge could save the hireling and slave, from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,” says the verse.
I find it ironic that Key wrote these lyrics while he was, in fact, on a mission to free his friend from captivity. Oh, say can you see, the hypocrisy. But that’s a whole ‘nother song.
Happy Birthday, America.