![]() He’s a big believer in the song’s impact on American culture. Mark Clague is a professor of musicology, the director of research at the University of Michigan and the founder of the Star-Spangled Music Foundation. ![]() Thousands of renditions are played each year, but how much do you really know about the anthem? From the war of 1812, to World War I, and up to today’s traditions, it’s had a hand in molding the modern image of America. To celebrate the anthem’s 200-year anniversary, we explore its historical significance. …the song evokes potent emotion and memory. …or belted by Whitney Houston at Super Bowl XXV… Whether distorted in protest by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock… “His troops were slaughtered so aggressively,” Johnson says, “that he had to run home and hide in Washington DC. So this was personal for him.We’re all familiar with Francis Scott Key’s “The Star-Spangled Banner,” especially as a ritual opening at our county’s favorite sporting events. His unit was beaten and humiliated by them. He points out that Key himself faced the black Colonial Marines in battle. American writers contrasted these miserable hirelings and slaves with the virtuous all-volunteer citizen armies of America. They say it echoes similar rhetoric used since the Revolutionary War to describe the forces of the king of England, especially those units purchased from German princes. They point out that Key never told anyone what he actually meant, and some historians interpret his mention of hirelings and slaves to reference all of the invading British forces. ![]() Many historians agree with Johnson, but some disagree. “It was an amazing opportunity for African Americans to fight for their freedom,” says Johnson. Most of the men were recruited into the Royal Navy or into the Colonial Marines, a mostly black unit, which fought with distinction. Key was a typical white Marylander of his time, and he favored slavery.Ībout 6,000 African Americans fled to the British during the War of 1812, on the promise of freedom. ![]() “So it’s clearly racist it’s clearly pro-slavery, but it’s pretty much in line with the kind of man that Francis Scott Key was.” NPS.gov“The entire song sort of leads up to this point,” Johnson adds, “where he’s essentially saying to these terrible, ungrateful, black people, this is the consequence of standing up against the United States.” Johnson is an associate professor at Morgan State University in Baltimore, and has a piece in online magazine The Root on this issue. “Essentially,” says writer and academic Jason Johnson, “Francis Scott Key was happy to see former slaves, who had joined the British as part of their Colonial Marines, getting slaughtered and killed as they attempted to take Baltimore.” The language is definitely archaic and seems a little confusing unless you know the context. No refuge could save the hireling and slave, From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave.” “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. The argument about racism centers on his little-known third stanza: It’s also re-opened a discussion about whether "The Star-Spangled Banner" is actually racist.įrancis Scott Key wrote his famous poem, "The Defence of Fort McHenry," after witnessing the failure of the British assault on the fort, which guarded Baltimore during the War of 1812. The decision of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to stop standing for the national anthem has provoked a lot of debate, to say the least.
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