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Originally Posted by rustyp
Francis Scott Key author of the star spangled banner was a well know slave owner. There is controversy over verse three with perhaps some reference to slavery but difficult to translate. FYI the melody is from an old British drinking song.
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The melody goes back to maybe 1773, so it was barely forty years old when Key’s lyrics were written. It was the anthem sung at each meeting of a group of wealthy amateur singers who got together to sing and also drink. It was not a barroom song—way too difficult to sing.
The Anacreontic Song - Wikipedia
Key was a prominent lawyer, not a “well known slave owner.” I don’t think he owned a plantation. He did own some slaves, which was entirely legal in Maryland. He also freed a number of them, provided pro bono representation at times for people of African descent, and spent ten years pushing the will of my ancestor John Randolph of Virginia through the courts—a difficult process because Randolph freed 400 slaves. He was not an abolitionist, but neither was Abraham Lincoln until it was politically useful. He was a member of a society dedicated to helping free or freed Africans return to Africa—a worthy goal, and again one Lincoln approved of for awhile.