THE TRUTH BEHIND THE US NATIONAL ANTHEM
'The Star Spangled Banner’ is heard underpinning all American events of significance since it was made the official US National anthem in 1931. To most, it emulates their patriotism for the ‘Land of the Free’, their ‘American Dream’ and their status as the most affluent nation on the planet.
However, most only know the first verse of their beloved song, let alone the third, where a much darker history is touched upon.
A quick Google of the writer – Francis Scott Key (1779 - 1843) – immediately starts ringing alarm bells. A slave owner and anti-abolitionist, who actively used his status as US attorney to represent, ‘masters seeking return of their runaway human property’, prosecuted those sharing anti-slavery material and was known to be strongly in favour of African colonisation and a critic of the Antislavery movement.
In one famous case, he charged Doctor Reuben Crandall of “instigating slaves to rebel”, using the anti-slavery publications found filling his trunk as evidence. Key lost this trial, but a more noteworthy element of the case was his final address to the jury where he stated, "Are you willing, gentlemen, to abandon your country, to permit it to be taken from you, and occupied by the abolitionist, according to whose taste it is to associate and amalgamate with the negro? Or, gentlemen, on the other hand, are there laws in this community to defend you from the immediate abolitionist, who would open upon you the floodgates of such extensive wickedness and mischief?". Remember the message of this quote as it ties in well to his chosen lyrics, (side note: eerie echoes here also of recent media portrayal of refugees both in the USA and UK).
Now a closer look at the anthem itself. It was written during the 1812 war where Britain famously offered slaves (and their families) freedom if they enlisted to fight with them, forming the ‘Colonial Marines’. Key, a Lieutenant at the time, saw his troops defeated by one of these battalions in August 1814, whom burnt down the Library of Congress, the Capitol Building and the White House. From the stance of a pro-slavery, anti-abolitionist such as Francis Key Scott, you can imagine that he felt very hatefully towards this destruction of his home. Fast forward a few weeks, Key wrote the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ while watching over the Fort McHenry battle; one which although the British technically won, there were heavy casualties for the Colonial Marines. And within the third stanza, his damning of these people for the cheek of fighting for their own freedom against their enslavement can be seen:
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.
With this context, it can be easily argued that Key is in fact celebrating the death of these self-freed Slaves and that ‘the land of the free’ is actually a reference to America without the "extensive wickedness and mischief" he believed anti-abolitionists desired. Leading to the question of why, if this information can easily be found, is ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ still sung today? Or at least, this is what I might have asked a few years ago in the prime of Obama’s Presidency. But Donald Trump’s election, who has (and more);
labelled judge, Gonzalo Curiel biased as he is of ‘Mexican heritage’
been sued for racial discrimination when refusing to rent his properties to black people in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island in 1973
fined in 1992 for removing African-American card dealers at requests of rich gamblers in his casinos
step sided condemning white supremacists campaigning for him
questioned if Obama was born in the States and his Presidential legitimacy
called supporters who beat up a homeless Latino man “passionate”
said he would build a wall to keep Mexican people from crossing the border, whom he also wants to fund it
planned to deport over eleven million migrants living in the US
might suggest that the hidden values Francis Scott Key wrote in to the ‘Star Spangled Banner’, are sadly still prominent in many American citizens today.
However, one glimpse of hope can be seen in the voting statistics, Trump was actually voted in by little more than one quarter of the electorate. Perhaps showing voters have become disillusioned with the current ruling elite, grasping on to any form of change rather than a true show of their political persuasion. With luck this will resonate in the 'left' wing groups, who may need to adapt with the public's new global dissatisfaction with the 'same old' in order to survive. Surely, one symbolic gesture of moving forward could be to change the US National Anthem?