The Star Spangled Banner Deconstructed

The national anthem of America, the Star Spangled Banner, typically invokes feelings of pride, devotion and loyalty.  It symbolizes freedom and the championing of human rights.  However, a second look at this national symbol exposes one to its warmongering, gory, pro-slavery themes.

The Star Spangled Banner is actually a four stanza poem, of which the first cadence is most commonly known as the American national anthem.  It was written in 1812 by Francis Scott Key, after seeing the American flag still flying after the battle of Fort McHenry during the U.S. War of 1812 against England.  The original title of the poem was “Defense of Fort McHenry”.  The poem is set to a popular British tune called “To Anacreon in Heaven”, a drinking song that celebrates, women, wine and carousing.

Mr. Key was a slave owner and a lawyer who prosecuted anti-slavery activists for their abolitionist work.  Upon closer inspection, his activities seem to be in stark contrast to the last sentence in each verse of the poem “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”  The poem continues on with its pro-slavery sentiments with the verbiage in the third stanza and line “No refuge could save the hireling and slave.”

A Racist Star Spangled Banner

The poem is a call to war with bloodthirsty imagery.  This could possibly serve as a prelude to the many wars and invasions the United States has been involved in over the years.  This is embodied by the usage found in the second line of the third stanza “Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution” and in the fifth line of the fourth stanza “Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just”.

These are concepts far removed from the more popular view of this national symbol.  A deeper look at the history of the Star Spangled Banner provides opportunity to inspect uncomfortable aspects of its message in regard to race and slavery.

Also see the original archived Star Spangled Banner at the US National Archives. They also offer a pretty interesting collection of famous patriotic songs that includes expert opinion on their historical context. Here is the original Star Spangled Banner poem by Francis Scott Key in its entirety:

Star Spangled Banner poem by Francis Scott Key

O say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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.
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.

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!