#Racist american national anthem lyrics free
O’er the land of the free and the home of the bra ve. No refuge could save the hireling and slaveįrom the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,Īnd the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution. That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusionĪ home and a Country should leave us no more?
#Racist american national anthem lyrics full
This inspired Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner” right then and there, but no one remembers that he wrote a full third stanza decrying the former slaves who were now working for the British army:Īnd where is that band who so vauntingly swore, America lost the battle but managed to inflict heavy casualties on the British in the process.
Key was on the boat waiting to see if the British would release his friend when he observed the bloody battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore on Sept. You can imagine that Key was very much in his feelings seeing black soldiers trampling on the city he so desperately loved.Ī few weeks later, in September of 1815, far from being a captive, Key was on a British boat begging for the release of one of his friends, a doctor named William Beanes. 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. 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. 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. 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.Īll of these ideas and concepts came together around Aug. The Marines were a battalion of runaway slaves who joined with the British Royal Army in exchange for their freedom. Of particular note was Key’s opposition to the idea of the Colonial Marines. 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. 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. Key was an aristocrat and city prosecutor in Washington, D.C. To understand the full “Star-Spangled Banner” story, you have to understand the author. 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. 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. O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave, In fact, if you look up the song on Google, only the most famous lyrics pop up on : “The Star-Spangled Banner,” as most Americans know it, is only a couple of lines. It is one of the most racist, pro-slavery, anti-black songs in the American lexicon, and you would be wise to cut it from your Fourth of July playlist. In the case of our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” perhaps not knowing the full lyrics is a good thing. Most black folks don’t even know “the black national anthem.” (There’s a great story about Bill Clinton being at an NAACP meeting where he was the only one who knew it past the first line. Jeremiah Wright remix than the actual full lyrics of the song. “God Bless America”? More people know the Rev. Americans generally get a failing grade when it comes to knowing our “patriotic songs.” I know more people who can recite “ America, F–k Yeah” from Team America than “America the Beautiful.” “Yankee Doodle”? No one older than a fifth-grader in chorus class remembers the full song.