'The Star-Spangled Banner' and Slavery

[sheshe2]

The article cited by journalist Radley Balko in the above tweet quotes the rarely sung third stanza of the anthem (see below), noting that the phrase "hireling and slave" refers to black slaves hired to fight on the side of the British during the War of 1812:

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 wash’d out their foul footstep’s 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.

There are historians (notably Robin Blackburn, author of The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776-1848, and Alan Taylor, author of "American Blacks in the War of 1812&quot , who have indeed read the stanza as glorying in the Americans' defeat of the Corps of Colonial Marines, one of two units of black slaves recruited between 1808 and 1816 to fight for the British on the promise of gaining their freedom. Like so many of his compatriots, Francis Scott Key, the wealthy American lawyer who wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" in the wake of the Battle of Fort McHenry on 14 September 1814, was a slaveholder who believed blacks to be "a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community." It goes without saying that Key did not have the enslaved black population of America in mind when he penned the words "land of the free." It would be logical to assume, as well, that he might have harbored a special resentment toward African Americans who fought against the United States on behalf of the King.

snip//

The reality is that there were human beings fighting for freedom with incredible bravery during the War of 1812. However, “The Star-Spangled Banner” glorifies America’s “triumph” over them — and then turns that reality completely upside down, transforming their killers into the courageous freedom fighters.

After the U.S. and the British signed a peace treaty at the end of 1814, the U.S. government demanded the return of American “property,” which by that point numbered about 6,000 people. The British refused. Most of the 6,000 eventually settled in Canada, with some going to Trinidad, where their descendants are still known as “Merikins.”

http://www.snopes.com/2016/08/29/star-spangled-banner-and-slavery/

So much for Keyes "O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave." Then we have the US demanding the return of 6,000 persons the US deems to be property. I guess some people are freer and braver than others.

[tonyt53]

1. Might piss ya off, but are you skipping the KY Derby over some words that you don't hear?

Just sayin' that the Star Spangled Banner isn't the only one.....

[JustAnotherGen]

2. I posted this the other day : July 4, 2016

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8132224

Same comment - I don't blame them for at least trying to overcome TPTB by taking up arms against the USA. Lesson #1 : Everyone For Themselves.

If you can get a better deal elsewhere - take it.

The story, as most of us are told, is that Francis Scott Key was a prisoner on a British ship during the War of 1812 and wrote this poem while watching the American troops battle back the invading British in Baltimore. That—as is the case with 99 percent of history that is taught in public schools and regurgitated by the mainstream press—is less than half the story.

To understand the full “Star-Spangled Banner” story, you have to understand the author. Key was an aristocrat and city prosecutor in Washington, D.C. He was, like most enlightened men at the time, not against slavery; he just thought that since blacks were mentally inferior, masters should treat them with more Christian kindness. He supported sending free blacks (not slaves) back to Africa and, with a few exceptions, was about as pro-slavery, anti-black and anti-abolitionist as you could get at the time.

Of particular note was Key’s opposition to the idea of the Colonial Marines. The Marines were a battalion of runaway slaves who joined with the British Royal Army in exchange for their freedom. The Marines were not only a terrifying example of what slaves would do if given the chance, but also a repudiation of the white superiority that men like Key were so invested in.

All of these ideas and concepts came together around Aug. 24, 1815, at the Battle of Bladensburg, where Key, who was serving as a lieutenant at the time, ran into a battalion of Colonial Marines. His troops were taken to the woodshed by the very black folks he disdained, and he fled back to his home in Georgetown to lick his wounds. The British troops, emboldened by their victory in Bladensburg, then marched into Washington, D.C., burning the Library of Congress, the Capitol Building and the White House. You can imagine that Key was very much in his feelings seeing black soldiers trampling on the city he so desperately loved.

[sheshe2]

3. They did what they had to do.

I remember Giuliani's quote.

He said it himself – "I know this is a horrible thing to say" – but former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani went ahead and said it anyway.

"I do not believe that the president loves America," Giuliani said Wednesday night at a private dinner of conservatives and business executives in New York City, according to Politico.

President Obama, the Republican Giuliani continued, "doesn't love you. And he doesn't love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country."

Giuliani, asked Thursday morning about the accusation, told Fox and Friends: "I'm not questioning his patriotism. He's a patriot, I'm sure. What I'm saying is, in his rhetoric, I very rarely hear the things that I used to hear Ronald Reagan say, the things that I used to hear Bill Clinton say about how much he loves America."

http://www.people.com/article/rudy-giuliani-president-barack-obama-does-not-love-america

My point here, Keys and Giuliani say they love America more because they are white. Neither has the right to that claim.

Yes many black men joined the British for a chance of freedom. I would have done the same if black, since our country never fully included you in the land of the free or the home of the brave.