Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Maryland: The Man Who Gave America its Anthem with Sharon McMahon

Episode Date: October 18, 2021

In this episode, Sharon talks about a 19th century American Lawyer, Francis Scott Key, whose best-known contribution to American history was writing the US National Anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner. We all know the words “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave,” but what do we know about the man who penned them? Listen to learn the true legacy of Francis Scott Key, a man with drastically incongruent convictions about matters of national security, including war and slavery. Francis Scott Key will challenge you to question how we interpret and fulfill historic articles of our nation’s history from the Star Spangled Banner to the Constitution and beyond in the modern-day United States. For more information on this episode including all resources and links discussed go to https://www.sharonmcmahon.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, my friends. So happy you're here with me today. I'm sharing a story about a man whose name you will absolutely recognize. And I'm going to hopefully give you some little mind blown brain tangle moments about this gentleman and about what he has come to mean to the United States. So let's dive into my episode about the lovely state of Maryland and Francis Scott Key. I'm Sharon McMahon, and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast. Francis Scott Key, Maryland native, born in Frederick, Maryland in the late 1770s. And he was born there on a plantation called Terra Rubra. He was born into an incredibly wealthy family who owned slaves. And this became an important piece of Francis

Scott Key's story. He became a lawyer. He married a woman named Polly and they moved to Georgetown, which is a neighborhood in Washington, DC.C., and they eventually had 11 children. He continued his family's wealth, and he himself became a slave owner. He was one of those men along the lines of Thomas Jefferson, etc., who both publicly wrestled with enslaving humans while privately engaging in the practice. He simultaneously wrote the words land of the free and home of the brave while owning human beings. So he is not at all alone in this conundrum in U.S. history where some of the incredible documents, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, etc., Amazing ideas written by people who, by today's

standards, have incredibly challenging and problematic pasts. But I want to dive a little bit more into who he was, what his contributions to the United States were, and then you can be the judge of what kind of place you feel he deserves in U history. One of the incredibly important things to note is about the War of 1812. We've talked about the War of 1812 on this podcast before, and this is not going to be a history of the War of 1812, but you need to know a couple of things. The first thing is that the War of 1812 was incredibly unpopular. It was more unpopular than the Vietnam War. That is how opposed people were to getting into another war with the British. Because we had just ended the Revolutionary War. And the people were weary.

They were weary. They were just trying to get this country off the ground. Why do we need to get into another armed conflict? No, I don't want it. Why do we need to get into another armed conflict? No, I don't want it. Francis Scott Key was one of those people who was very against the War of 1812. Just to give you a teeny bit more context, there were a bunch of laws that were passed by Congress, signed by Thomas Jefferson, et cetera, that said, well, you can't trade with

the British and you can't trade with the French. And of course, the British and the French were at each other's throats. Napoleon was in power. The British hated Napoleon. They were fighting with each other and they were both trying to make it so that America could not trade with the other person. And so they were both causing a lot of trouble. In 1807, the United States passed a law saying, well, nobody can trade with anybody. That ended up just being a terrible idea. And in 1810, a bill was passed that said, if either of you countries will drop trade restrictions with the United States, then we will agree not to trade with the other side. So balls in your court, Britain and France, let us know.

And so of course, Napoleon was like, I might be willing to play that game. And so James Madison, who became president, was like, okay, boom, no more trading with Britain. Thank you very much. France is where it's at. Was Britain pleased with this scenario? Of course not. I've talked in a previous episode about William Henry Harrison and about the Indiana territory and their role in the beginnings of the War of 1812, the Battle of Tippecanoe, Tecumseh. You can go back and listen to my episode about Indiana if you'd like a refresher on that. But this is one of the biggest issues, is that Britain used this practice of impressment. You know what that means? Impressment? It's

basically boarding an American ship and forcing the people on board to fight for the British. And then additionally, Britain promised that any enslaved black people who could escape their enslavers would receive freedom and refuge with Britain. This, as one can imagine, did not go over well with many Americans. Many Americans felt that this was going to encourage slave revolts. They felt it was going to encourage people to try to run away, leave their masters and fight for the British. And at the time, the United States was not BFFs with the British. Of course, what is the fastest way for the United States to attack the British? It's through Canada.

And I will not give you the full story of all the battles, Canada, etc., etc., all of the defeats that we suffered and how many people were against the War of 1812. But let me just zoom us forward to the fact that Britain and France have finally ended their dispute in April of 1814, and it involved Napoleon losing. And that put the United States in an even more precarious position. In August of 1814, think back to what happened. The British invaded Washington, D.C. Set the Capitol on fire. Set the White House on fire. Dolly Madison is like, save George Washington's painting as they're fleeing Washington, D.C. Everybody was leaving. They did not want to get captured by the British. It was bad news. Bad news. Eventually, after they managed to lay some serious damage to Washington,

D.C., they looted and stole and lit all the things on fire and went into all the shops and took all the things. They then decided, okay, let's head to Baltimore. And at the time, Baltimore was the third largest city in the United States. It was a very, very busy seaport. The British suspected that there were a lot of pirates, or as some people would refer to them, privateers in that area. And they really wanted to capture Baltimore. They really were like, we need to defeat America by sea because we are the superior fleet. To protect the port of Baltimore was a little fort called Fort McHenry. And there were around a thousand people that were under the command of Major George Armistead, who was

overseeing the defense of Baltimore Harbor. They heard about what had happened in Washington, DC. And they were like, how can we keep the British from just pulling up and bombing us into oblivion? I know. We will sink a line of merchant ships in Baltimore Harbor, and that will make it so these British naval vessels cannot get close enough to us to do serious damage. So that's what they did. They sunk a big line of merchant ships and they were trying to prevent the advancement of the British into Baltimore Harbor. So on September 13th, 1814,

the British arrive in Baltimore. I'm skipping a bunch of stuff. Of course, do not write to me and be like, you forgot the battle of... I know that. I'm skipping over a lot of things to get to the good stuff. Middle of September, the British arrive in Baltimore. A messenger comes to Francis Scott Key's door, his law firm in Georgetown, and says, come quickly. We really need your help. And what they were asking for was for somebody to negotiate the release of a man who had been captured by the British. He was a physician. His name was William Beans. They thought Francis Scott Key being an incredibly powerful, well-connected attorney, that he might be able to help negotiate William Beans' release. So Francis Scott Key agrees to leave Washington, D.C. in the company of several other people and

go to Baltimore where William Beans was being held captive. Ultimately, Francis Scott Key was successful in negotiating the release of William Beans. After they agreed to release him, the British realized, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. You guys can't just leave. You can't just get back on your boat and go back to shore. You might tell the Americans about our positions. You might tell the Americans where all of our ships are at anchor. You might tell the Americans stuff that could help them in this battle. So no, no, no, no, no. You stay right out here. You stay on this boat in the middle of the river while you just wait for us to finish defeating the Americans at Fort McHenry. So Francis Scott Key and his compatriots sat aboard a boat on the

night of September 13th, 1814, watching the British lay siege to Fort McHenry, which was there to protect the port of Baltimore. And when I say lay siege between 1,500 and 1,800 cannonballs at Fort McHenry. They tried hard. This was not a little skirmish. This took 25 hours, and it was in the pouring rain. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends. And together, we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office with insane behind-the-scenes stories, hilarious guests, and lots of laughs. Guess who's sitting next to me? Steve! It's my girl in the studio!

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podcasts. 25 hours in the pouring rain, the Americans held their positions. Fort McHenry could not be taken. Francis Scott Key undoubtedly laid awake most of that night listening to the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, listening to the thunderstorm probably getting wet. Now, most people know that Francis Scott Key wrote the Star-Spangled Banner. Most people don't realize it was about the War of 1812. A lot of people think it was in relationship to the Revolutionary War, and it wasn't. And a lot of people are under the mistaken impression that Francis Scott Key was a prisoner, and he wasn't. He was not a prisoner. He was being prohibited from returning to shore by the British

until the battle was over so he wouldn't give away their positions. And another common misconception is that he sat and watched the flag all night long that was flying over Fort McHenry. And when the sun rose, the flag was still there. And he was so relieved that the flag was still there. Okay. That is also a common misconception. So there were two flags that the U.S. military used during this time period. And one of them was just like a normal size flag. And one of them was called a garrison flag. So like a normal flag that they flew during the storm, and one was the garrison flag. And that was a massive flag. And the reason it was massive is because it was meant to be seen from very far away. And so during the storm, during the bombardment that was happening, they were flying

the normal small storm flag because the garrison flag was made of wool and you could not fly it in the middle of a thunderstorm. It would have weighed 500 pounds. That's not an exaggeration. It already took like a dozen men just to hoist it up the 90 foot flagpole, even when it was dry. So the giant star-spangled banner flag that you see at the Smithsonian, the one that has 15 stars and 15 stripes, the one that the star-spangled banner, the national anthem was written about, was not the one that was flying over Fort McHenry on the night of September 13th, 1814. That is a common misconception. But when the sun rose and the British began to depart and they were like, I guess we can't win. And they eventually sailed away and then sailed for New Orleans. And you can hear more

about Jean Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans in my episode about Louisiana. When they decided to leave Baltimore and sail for New Orleans and the rain ended, the Americans took down the storm flag that had at that point become very tattered from the battle and the actual storm, and they raised the garrison flag. And the garrison flag, y'all, is 30 feet by 42 feet. That is massive. It had been made by a local flag maker. It had been commissioned by Armistead, who oversaw Fort McHenry. It had been commissioned by him. A local flag maker named Mary Pickersgill and her 13-year-old daughter made the Star-Spangled Banner flag that you can still see at the Smithsonian. And also they made the Storm flag, but that was handmade, out of wool, weighed so much.

One other little fun fact is that James Buchanan, who later became the president of the United States, fought as a soldier in the Battle of Baltimore. Perhaps he had been awake all night. Francis Scott Key sees the garrison flag being raised, hears the American troops firing their guns in victory. He hears people playing Yankee Doodle. That garrison flag that was 30 feet by 42 feet that could be seen from miles away got hoisted over Fort McHenry, and he just felt incredibly moved. He was incredibly relieved that they were so unsuccessful in taking this small fort at Baltimore Harbor.

And he began to write a poem. And the poem was called The Defense of Fort McHenry. It has the lyrics that you are undoubtedly familiar with, O say can you see by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. Those lyrics he wrote the next morning, and he intended for them to be sung to the tune of a song that people already knew. The song that people already knew was called To Anacreon in Heaven, and it was a song that was written by a gentleman's club in Britain, and it was sung at their little evening gentleman's club meetings. It's about Greek mythology.

It had eventually gained enough popularity that most American men knew it as a drinking song. To Anacreon in Heaven. I'm going to play you a little clip of what that song sounded like before it became the Star Spangled Banner. To Anacreon in Heaven, where he sat in full glee, a few sons of harmony sent a petition that he there in Scyra and Patron would be. When this answer arrived from the jolly Orbeetian voice, fiddle and flute, no longer be mute. I'll lend you my name and inspire you to boot.

And besides, I'll instruct you like me to entwine the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine. And besides, I'll instruct you like me to entwine the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine. So after he writes The Defense of Fort McHenry, he shows it around. He shows it to people in power and they're like, this is good. And he has like a little pamphlet printed up. And on one half, it has the music to Anacreon in Heaven. And then the other, it has the lyrics of what we know now as the Star-Spangled Banner. And it became

popular very quickly. The first documented public performance of the words and music together took place a little over a month later in Baltimore in October of 1814. They began referring to the song shortly thereafter as the Star-Spangled Banner, and it became a popular patriotic song, even though it did not become the national anthem for a long time. Okay, so let's get back to Francis Scott Key, and then I'll tell you how it became the national anthem. became the district attorney for the city of Washington, D.C., which is an incredibly powerful job because it was up to the district attorney at the time to deal with a lot of federal lawsuits. In fact, Francis Scott Key argued many, many cases in front of the Supreme Court, and some of the cases that he argued were in defense of slavery. They were attacking the abolitionist movement, which he was against. And this represents some of the dichotomy of the thinking of particularly

early American white men, where on one hand, you have Francis Scott Key, who defends escaped slaves for free. And in fact, some people refer to him as a black man's lawyer. And on the other hand, you have Francis Scott Key, who is actively prosecuting, going after abolitionists who are trying to end slavery. There's no synchronicity of thought there. There is no like, I am consistent in my belief about the institution of slavery. He simultaneously owned slaves and set some of his slaves free. He simultaneously owned slaves and set some of his slaves free. He simultaneously defended slaves in court and prosecuted people who were trying to end slavery. The abolitionist movement began to create acts of violence because they were so

against slavery and so many people who wanted to protect their way of life, wanted to protect the institution of slavery, did not take kindly to that. And so it created these violent clashes between these two different groups. So much so, y'all, think about this happening today. What would happen if something like this took place in 2021. In 1836, the House of Representatives passed a series of gag rules. And the gag rules said, all anti-slavery petitions will not be read and will not be discussed, period. John Quincy Adams, not pleased about that. He was like, hello, it is our right as Americans. The First Amendment guarantees us the right to discuss these things. By today's standards, can you imagine Congress being like, we will not talk about that. Gag order. We will

not discuss that topic, whatever that topic is. We will not discuss police reform. We will not discuss that topic, whatever that topic is. We will not discuss police reform. We will not discuss immigration. We will not discuss tax policy. It's just not happening. People are too mad. We're not going to discuss it. You're not allowed. One of the things that is very questionable to many people about Francis Scott Key is that his sister married a man named Roger Taney. And Roger Taney was a racist. There's just no two ways around it. He absolutely was. He was a racist attorney. And Francis Scott Key had become very good friends with Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson defeated John Quincy Adams after John Quincy Adams was president for one term. And Andrew Jackson fired almost his entire cabinet and had what he called a kitchen cabinet,

which was just like, I'm not going to go through these shenanigans of getting all of my cabinet members approved by this Congress. I'm just going to do what I want. I'm going to have my kitchen cabinet. And so Francis Scott Key was part of Andrew Jackson's kitchen cabinet. It was also Francis Scott Key who bent the ear of Andrew Jackson and said, I think you should appoint Roger Taney to be the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. Small problem, actually really big problem. Roger Taney wrote the decision for the Dred Scott case. In the opinion, he said black people, quote, have no rights which the white man is bound to respect, meaning white people don't have to give black people any respect because they don't have any rights that white people are obligated to respect. And that's just one tiny little thing that Roger Taney said in this decision. So the fact that Francis Scott Key was born into a family that owned slaves, the fact that he himself owned slaves, the fact that he sometimes defended slaves in court, but sometimes prosecuted people who were against slavery, and then the fact that he really worked to get his brother-in-law, who was clearly a racist, appointed as Chief Justice of

the Supreme Court while being a member of the kitchen cabinet of a slave-holding president, Andrew Jackson. All of this creates a picture of Francis Scott Key that is difficult to wrestle with at best. It's difficult at best. One other thing about Francis Scott Key is that he became one of the most active members of something called the American Colonization Society. And he came to believe that the enslaved should be made free, but that they could not live in harmony with whites in the United States. And that the best thing to do would be to pay to send freed slaves back to Africa. And they specifically created a country called Liberia. Francis Scott Key, I don't mean he liked the American Colonization Society. I mean, he was very active in the American Colonization Society. He thought this was the best

solution for everyone involved. Just send people to Liberia after they have been freed in the United States. Francis Scott Key later became a very avowed Democrat. And at the time, the Democratic Party was very much the party of white supremacy, was very much the party of slavery, was very much the party of white Southerners who did not relish the thought of Northerners taking away their way of life, taking away the human beings that they owned. So where does this leave us? A number of people, while he was still alive, wrote articles criticizing him because he had written these famous words, land of the free and home of the brave. They wrote articles that said land of the free and home of the oppressed. Why do we have so much incongruity between what we say publicly and what we think privately?

Or we have these idyllic notions of land of the free and home of the brave. And then simultaneously, we are trying to only have that land of the free and home of the brave be for people of a certain race. Okay, so going back to the Star-Spangled Banner. The Star-Spangled Banner became more and more and more popular throughout the 1800s. And it gained really a certain level of significance during the Civil War. level of significance during the Civil War. By the 1890s, the American military had adopted the Star-Spangled Banner sort of as ceremonial purposes, and they required that it be played under certain circumstances. And patriotic organizations were working hard to get Congress to recognize the Star-Spangled Banner as the U.S. national anthem. Prior to that, we didn't have a

national anthem, so it's not like we were replacing a different national anthem with this one. Woodrow Wilson was like, yes, this should be the national anthem, and he wrote an executive order saying, yeah, this is our national song. But finally, in the early 1930s, Congress passed a bill saying that the Star-Spangled Banner was the national anthem of the United States, and Herbert Hoover signed that bill into law in March of 1931. So the Star-Spangled Banner as the official national anthem has only been in place for under 100 years, although it was a very, very popular patriotic song before then. was a very, very popular patriotic song before that. If you think about other popular patriotic songs like America the Beautiful, God Bless America, et cetera, those are other popular patriotic songs. And that was kind of the place the Star-Spangled Banner had for a lot of people until the Civil War, when people really started using it more and more, and it became more

associated with military endeavors. I thought it was interesting that when he died in 1843, he died when he was 63, his house in Georgetown that he lived at with his wife and 11 children stood for a while. It was really kind of a national landmark, right? But then in 1947, it was dismantled to make room for a highway. And they took it down brick by brick. And they put the bricks of the Francis Scott Key Home into storage, thinking maybe someday we will have a place that we want to put this. But by 1955, the entire building, every last brick had disappeared from its storage site. And to this day, nobody knows what happened to the bricks of the home of Francis Scott Key. They have been lost

to history. I also really loved what Christopher Wilson, who was one of the directors of the Smithsonian Museum of American History, has to say about Francis Scott Key. He says, find it. We should remember that if 200 years after it was declared so by a slaveholder, an enemy of free speech, the United States is the land of the free, that is because of the brave, who have called it home since dawn's early light in September of 1814. I just love that. But even though the person who wrote those words was a slaveholder, was in many ways an enemy of free speech when he was advocating for all these policies that were gag orders and prosecuting abolitionists, even though it was a man who wrote those words, it doesn't mean that they shouldn't be true today. Right? Don't you love that? Don't you love that the origin of that

phrase, the land of the free and the home of the brave, don't you love that that origin is not its final destination? That the United States can still be the land of the free and the home of the brave, even though Francis Scott Key did some things, many things that most of us would strongly disagree with today. That is my story about Francis Scott Key from the beautiful state of Maryland that I called home for many years. The man who penned the Star-Spangled Banner, the song that nobody can sing. But he didn't write the tune. You have a bunch of gentlemen in a secret gentleman's club in Britain to thank for that one.

The fact that no one could sing it will give Francis Scott Key a pass on that one. Thank you so much for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor. Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave me a rating or a review? Or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories or with a friend? All of those things help podcasters out so much. I cannot wait to have another mind blown moment with you next episode. Thanks again for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast.