![]() Slavery was toppling under the blows of war, and in just another month the President would issue the preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation. What most historians agree on, is that people are simply unaware of the song’s history.When, on August 14, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln spoke to a visiting “committee of colored men” at the White House, it was already becoming clear that one result of the War Between the States would be the freeing of millions of slaves. Others, including historian Jason Johnson, say the line is a derogatory reference to black slaves who had joined the British Colonial Marines to fight in the war of 1812. Some argue the word referred to British forces as a whole. The meaning behind Key’s ‘slave’ is still up for debate. This first verse is the part that’s sung at most sporting events.īut it’s the little-sung third stanza, which contains the line ‘No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave’, that historians have deemed problematic. The ‘rocket’s red glare’ and ‘bombs bursting in air’ are all about the fear surrounding Britain’s attack on the Americans. The anthem tells of American victory over the British (Key saw the American flag as the smoke cleared on the battle scene, in ‘the dawn’s early light’). ‘O, say can you see.’ sings the ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’. What are the lyrics to ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’? Just days ago, Key’s statue in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park was toppled by protesters during demonstrations against racial injustice. In 1836, a newspaper detailed the reality of human slavery in the US under the headline ‘Land of the Free/Home of the Oppressed’. Key’s ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ lyrics were widely accused by abolitionists of being hypocritical. And though he later spoke out about the cruelty of human slavery, he never did anything to eradicate the system when he was in a position of power. Born in 1779, Key grew up in an old Maryland plantation family and went on to become the US district attorney for Columbia, in Washington state.ĭuring his time in the post, he actively suppressed slavery abolitionists. Significantly, he was also a slave holder. The American flag flying over Fort McHenry, illustrating Francis Scott Key’s ‘The Star Spangled Banner’.įrancis Scott Key was many things: a poet, lawyer and author. It wasn’t until 1931 that it was adopted as the official US anthem. The two were put together and it became a drinking song. And now we do it under the guise of ’legacy.’”Īround 40 years earlier, British composer and early musicologist John Stafford Smith wrote a tune called ‘The Anacreontic Song’. ![]() We do it first because we knew what we were doing, and we wanted to be sexist and racist. “And so, I do side with the people who say that we should rethink this as the national anthem, because this is about the deep-seated legacy of slavery and white supremacy in America, where we do things over and over and over again that are a slap in the face of people of colour and women. But then there are these young people who say that America needs to live up to its real creed. He says: “The 53-year-old in me says, we can’t change things that have existed forever. Speaking to Parker, historian and scholar Daniel E. President Obama supported Kaepernick’s right to protest, saying it was his ‘constitutional right’ to stay seated.Īn article by Yahoo Music’s Editor in Chief, Lyndsey Parker, asks if it’s time to adopt an anthem with a “more inclusive message”. Four years ago, San Francisco 49’ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick famously refused to stand during the playing of the national anthem. ![]() One American student recently refused to sing it at her virtual graduation ceremony, instead performing ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’, often referred to as the ‘Black national anthem’. ![]()
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