Freedom matters
Is the United States National Anthem Racist?
The Star-Spangled Banner was written in 1814 and became the American national anthem in 1931. Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that became the songs lyrics on Sept. 14, 1814, after witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812. Francis Scott Keys little known third stanza includes these lines:
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.
By the time Key wrote these words, the British military included a regiment of former slaves called the Colonial Marines, whom the British had encouraged to escape, then trained, and armed to fight against the Americans.
In fact, just weeks before on Aug. 24, 1814, the Colonial Marines had participated in the Battle of Bladensburg outside Washington, D.C. The Bladensburg fight was a quick, embarrassing defeat for American troops, something Key knew because he'd witnessed it close up as a volunteer aide to a U.S. general. The British forces, including the Colonial Marines, had then continued to Washington the same day, infamously occupying and torching the White House.
MY ANALYSIS:
In America during the war of 1812, slavery was still legal in America. The British were recruiting American slaves to fight against there masters. Some of these slaves may have been fighting for there freedom from there American slave masters. The war of 1812 was also a battle for freedom for some American slaves against there American masters.
Is the United States National Anthem racist? It is a little racist because part of the original poem talked about the black slaves who fought against there white masters will end up dead.