I did not know this: The National Anthem, in the 3rd verse, calls 4 the execution of black slaves

[kpete]

Almost no one seems to be aware that even if the U.S. were a perfect country today, it would be bizarre to expect African-American players to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Why? Because it literally celebrates the murder of African-Americans.

Few people know this because we only ever sing the first verse. But read the end of the third verse and you’ll see why “The Star-Spangled Banner” is not just a musical atrocity, it’s an intellectual and moral one, too:

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.

“The Star-Spangled Banner,” Americans hazily remember, was written by Francis Scott Key about the Battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812. But we don’t ever talk about how the War of 1812 was a war of aggression that began with an attempt by the U.S. to grab Canada from the British Empire.


one of the key tactics behind the British military’s success was its active recruitment of American slaves. As a detailed 2014 article in Harper’s explains, the orders given to the Royal Navy’s Admiral Sir George Cockburn read:

Let the landings you make be more for the protection of the desertion of the Black Population than with a view to any other advantage. … The great point to be attained is the cordial Support of the Black population. With them properly armed & backed with 20,000 British Troops, Mr. Madison will be hurled from his throne.

Whole families found their way to the ships of the British, who accepted everyone and pledged no one would be given back to their “owners.” Adult men were trained to create a regiment called the Colonial Marines, who participated in many of the most important battles, including the August 1814 raid on Washington.

Then on the night of September 13, 1814, the British bombarded Fort McHenry. Key, seeing the fort’s flag the next morning, was inspired to write the lyrics for “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

So when Key penned “No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,” he was taking great satisfaction in the death of slaves who’d freed themselves. His perspective may have been affected by the fact he owned several slaves himself.

With that in mind, think again about the next two lines: “And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave / O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”


MORE:
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/28/colin-kaepernick-is-righter-than-you-know-the-national-anthem-is-a-celebration-of-slavery/

[malaise]

1. and never forget the

3/5 human back in the day.

[John1956PA]

2. Three-Fifths

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromise

[malaise]

5. You know I knew I should cross check that

it just sounded wrong. Thanks

[John1956PA]

8. You're welcome, Malaise. The 3/5 fraction always stood out to me because it's such an oddball. n/t

[Warpy]

29. The compromise was struck so the agrarian south wouldn't always be outvoted

by the urbanized, industrialized north, 3/5 of the slave census being used to apportion the number of representatives a state could elect to Congress. It was the only way the south would agree to the stronger government of the constitution, rather than the "barely there" government of the Articles of Confederation.

Dixie has always regretted it ever since then.

[malaise]

7. This is very relevant in this election season

Following the Civil War and the abolition of slavery by the Thirteenth Amendment (1865), the three-fifths clause was nullified, as all people were now free.[citation needed] Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) later superseded Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3. It provides that "representatives shall be apportioned ... counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed." A later provision of the same clause reduced the Congressional representation of states who denied the right to vote to adult male citizens, but this provision was never effectively enforced.[12]

After the Reconstruction era came to an end in 1877, however, the former slave states subverted the objective of these changes by using various strategies to disenfranchise their black citizens, while obtaining the benefit of apportionment of representatives on the basis of the total populations. These measures effectively gave white Southerners even greater voting power than they had in the antebellum era, inflating the number of Southern Democrats in the House of Representatives as well as the number of votes they could exercise in the Electoral College in the election of the president.

The disenfranchisement of black citizens eventually attracted the attention of Congress, and in 1900 some members proposed stripping the South of seats, related to the number of people who were barred from voting.[13] In the end, Congress did not act to change apportionment, largely because of the power of the Southern bloc. The Southern bloc comprised Southern Democrats voted into office by white voters and constituted a powerful voting bloc in Congress until the 1960s. Their representatives, re-elected repeatedly by one-party states, controlled numerous chairmanships of important committees in both houses on the basis of seniority, giving them control over rules, budgets and important patronage projects, among other issues. Their power allowed them to defeat federal legislation against racial violence and abuses in the South.[14][not in citation given]

[John1956PA]

12. Great post! Via the continuum of history, political dueling of 150 years ago affects the present. nt

[malaise]

16. It was from your link

[John1956PA]

20. Back 'atcha, Malaise!

The text may be from my link (which I only glanced at), but the connection between the historic events and today's political landscape was your observation.

As an aside, I am glad that Hermine did not drop in on your location.

Best wishes.

John

[malaise]

27. Hermine caused some serious damage

in Cuba and Florida and is not finished with the Atlantic Coast states - we were lucky to just get some rain. And thousands won't have power before Monday.
Hope we'll be as lucky next week.

[lordsummerisle]

28. We dodged a bullet in Myrtle Beach

it passed by as a tropical storm with a lot of rain but not much wind and I see that once it goes back out to see it is expected to restrengthen into a hurricane.

[LittleDuckie]

3. No, it doesn't. Learn to read. nt

[Stellar]

44. LOL...instead of insults try explaining yourself. nt

[LittleDuckie]

49. What insults?

That was some helpful advice.

[Stellar]

59. "Learn to read" was helpful information? OK, whatever... nt

[LittleDuckie]

70. Helpful advice

Not information. Learn to -- yeah, okay. You're doing the best you can.

[CivicGrief]

4. I say we change the national anthem

I like This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie.

[RKP5637]

6. K&R! n/t

[sheshe2]

41. Love it.

Welcome to DU CivicGrief!

[Richard D]

61. My first choice.

Second choice is America the Beautiful.

[NuclearDem]

9. Oh for crying out loud, no it doesn't.

Even if it did, nobody sings it anyway or really gives a shit about it except people who are just looking for things to get all fainting-couch over.

[Maeve]

10. While not denying Keys was a racist, the words have another meaning

In 18th-19th century poetic, political terms, "hirelings and slaves" referred to mercenaries and impressed (forced) troops; such were commonly used by the British empire at the time and disdained in comparison to free men willingly fighting for a cause. You can find the terms in Irish literature, where 'slaves' were also those who were oppressed but refused to stand and throw off their chains, as 'true men' would. (Victim blaming goes way back in human history.) It's a lot easier to disdain the oppressed when you are one of the oppressors.
That may explain to some extent why the verse got less notice than you might expect, but it's also a lousy lyric with confusing grammar and was (IMHO) properly dropped from most versions.

[packman]

24. Glad you pointed this out

It is foolish to tie this verse into the American slave issue and it is a clear overreach to do so. Scott wrote this poem after the siege of Fort McHenry and the verses were a slap at the mercenaries (as you pointed out) and the ones in the graves were references to the British .

[brush]

52. Key was a racist. I'm not at all convinced that what he wrote in the third verse . . .

is from a British perspective with their meaning of hireling and slaves. More likely it's from the perspective of an American and a slave holder (Key himself) who would abhor the loss of and would rather see them dead.

You and the other poster are making excuses for racist, hateful words that reflect what the country was at the time. It was a hostile, vicious and unkind place if you were black, and in some ways it still is (see all the incidents of racist cops killing unarmed black men).

Kaepernick has a point and so does the poster calling for changing the national anthem.

"America the Beautiful", "This Land is Your Land" and "God Bless America" are good choices.

I haven't stood for that anthem for years, not just because of the country's racism, but for it's imperialism and constant aggression internationally. IMO more and more people will began following suit when they learn that we've been singing this song, which in itself glorifies war, for decades when it has a verse to it with horrible, racist meanings.

Not uncommon if documents, songs and poems from our racist past. Hey, even the Constitution has the 3/5s clause.

[packman]

53. Resent what you said

"You and the other poster are making excuses for racist, hateful words that reflect what the country was at the time."

Listen closely, pay attention - I and others are pointing out that the SONG - SONG- does not refer to racism or is hateful except as it is directed toward the British and their hired mercenaries.

Can't you separate the two things?

No way, no how and in no manner have I or others deserve that stone you cast. Get off the high horse. One has to be historically blind to not acknowledge what was going on and is still at work regarding racism - BUT, we were trying to analyze that 3rd stanza , and not get hysterical about it.

[brush]

54. The third stanza says what it says. It's glorifying the death of slaves.

Now that it's out there it's hard to ignore that the third verse of our national anthem is pretty effin racist and written by a slave holder.

Key was a slave holder.

A slave holder by definition = racist.

Time to think about moving to a new national anthem.

[packman]

56. Still can't separate can you?

A song ( one thing). A slaveholder (another thing) Third verse nothing -NOTHING-to do with American racist policy.

Refer to:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8141337

Shit, with that type of thinking - rename Wash. , D.C., take all those slaveholders off our money, purge our history, PURGE IT I SAY.

I, and others who have sung the National Anthem, agree we need a new one - but, not for the reasons you seem to hold. It's hard to sing, glorifies war, and is not what we are about as a nation

My choice:

?t=10

[brush]

57. Who's trying to separate it?

Maybe you are but I'm not, and many others aren't either.

The third first of our national anthem glorifys killing slaves. Not good.

[packman]

58. BRITISH SLAVES TO THEIR MASTERS!!!

Enuff - too entrenched to see the point

Peace -

[brush]

60. Do you not know that one British tactic in the War of 1812 was to enlist enslaved black . . .

Americans into their army and guarantee them freedom? The units were called Colonial Marines.

Apparently you don't know this.

Key knew it, thus the third stanza.

I don't have to separate anything.

[Travis_0004]

33. Agrreed

Its also not surprising that a song written in 1812 was anti british

[Person 2713]

11. Good discussion about this and also on sports bringing political awareness both the past

like Ali , 68 Olympicsprotest and the present Colin Kaepernick in football on PBS News Hour tonight

[Nye Bevan]

13. I'm going to stop standing for the third verse (nt)

[CivicGrief]

23. Very funny

When we keep sidestepping one of the, if not the, ugliest realities of American history, we'll never eradicate racism. A pathetic war song should not get us all worked up.

[Egnever]

46. The heck it shouldn't

it was a song about the founding of America. Written during the founding of america.

You can bitch about whatever issue you want to bitch about but America remains an amazing accomplishment in spite of itself.

[1939]

65. Not really about the founding.

It relates to the defense of Baltimore against a British fleet in 1814 (after the Brits had burned the white House and other government buildings in Washington. It was quite a few years after the founding of America.

[JonLP24]

14. A lot of people will say it doesn't matter since

They don't sing that part anymore.

To me though why would it be so necessary to stand for the song in either version or they're "disrespecting" the flag, the troops, whatever. Its just an old song that wasn't even the anthem til 1931.

[Wednesdays]

19. And even then only because Hoover's wife liked it.

We really need to adopt America the Beautiful as the anthem, for all sorts of reasons.

[DBoon]

48. So we should adopt "God Save the Queen" as our anthem?

Sex Pistols would be proud

[Separation]

15. I hazily remember this verse being talked about in high school once.

What is an interesting question then, is. During the Battle of 1812 they were looking to use freed slaves in their battle plan. Whay just some 50 years later did they side with the south?

[Travis_0004]

31. I don't think England cared about Slaves Freedom

They did want soldiers to fight in their war. That was most important, and in return for fighting they were willing to offer freedom to those slaves.

[SCantiGOP]

38. And Britian wanted the South to win

Slavery, not tariffs, was the major cause of the Civil War, but if CSA won they would be able to buy their textile machinery cheaper from Britian than from the northern states.

[TheHound]

17. I've never heard that part of the anthem

Is it played at special events or never?

[Wednesdays]

21. Choice parts of history are left out of our textbooks

Which is why I never heard of the issue until this week, myself.

[GulfCoast66]

18. I do not agree

Americans were volunteers fighting mercenaries(hirelings) and impressed soldiers(slaves). The same terminology was used in the revolution.

It is a comparison between the virtuous American and the evil British.

And all this talk about changing it is risky. Because we all know that if the decision was made to change it the new Anthem would be 'God Bless America'

[melman]

25. No it doesn't

But who needs reality when you've got phony internet outrage.

[packman]

26. From my post a few days ago - debunking that slave nonsense in the anthem

The poem was written on September 14, 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large American flag, the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the American victory.

It has/had NOTHING to do with black slavery - the "slaves" were references to imposition of implied slavery the British would reinstate on their former colonies or to the sailors on the British ships who were "slaves and hirelings"

Read that verse:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore (Where are the early patriots who first fought the British?)
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. (the blood of Patriots fighting in the Revolution - pollution=British rule)
No refuge could save the hireling and slave (reference to British bombarding the fort - they are paid hirelings and slaves)
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave: (We'll kick their ass - chase them and kill them)
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave

Gotta lighten up on this -
Why in the hell would Scott even inject something to do with American slavery in a poem written whose entire focus is on the shelling of the fort.

[Blue_Tires]

69. So the intercept plays fast and loose

With history to make some cheap political points? Where have I seen this before?

[still_one]

30. Even if it didn't contain racist lyrics, the Start Spangled Banner is a lousey National Anthem. It

says nothing about the ideals of American, it just another song glorifying war.

A far better National Anthem would be America The Beautiful

Here is Snopes discussing the OP

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

Far as I am concerned, not only is it racist, written by someone who was a racist, but also a stupid National Anthem

This would take an act of Congress to change it, which doesn't look likely

[ret5hd]

32. I'd say it says a whole lot about the ideals of america.

When have we not been at war?

[SCantiGOP]

39. With just a few exceptions

We were pretty much war-free in the Carter and Clinton Administrations.
(I did note that there were exceptions)

[guillaumeb]

34. Really clarifies what is meant by "land of the free"!

Recommended.

[ncjustice80]

35. Wow, didn't know it was so racist!!! Sounds like the National Anthem has got to go! n/t

[mrmpa]

36. There was a competition............

in the '30's to finalize a National Anthem. Supposedly the best entry was by George Gershwin, but anti-Semitism reared its ugly head & it did not win.

I have tried a few searches for this & once a couple years ago, I found an entry about it, but I haven't found a recording of it.

[oberliner]

37. No, it doesn't

Jon Schwarz is lying (knowingly).

[X_Digger]

40. No, it didn't. Read more 18th century prose, doofus. (Schwarz, the author, not you.)

I swear to dog, we need more English teachers deconstructing 18th and 19th century prose in today's schools. Shit, I'd like to see some of it for adults, too.

I bet the author makes a real hash of Shakespeare, too- "Romeo and Juliet is about vandalism, what with all those breaking windows."

[Abq_Sarah]

66. We need

More people who understand that history didn't start the day they were born and language evolves (or devolves) over time.

[X_Digger]

67. Yes, we even have a whole cadre who argue over the placement of a comma, when the rules of grammar..

.. hadn't even been codified at the time.

Sometimes I want to strap them down and make them listen to a CD set of 'A Way with Words'.

[Lithos]

42. Really sucky history here...

The war of 1812 started because of the economic sanctions of the English and French during the Napoleonic wars. Also, there was this stupid matter of impressment where the British Navy would kidnap US sailors and impress them into service in His Majesty's Navy. This latter tipped the US into responding Add to this was the British funding and supply of Indian tribes on the US frontier. The hatred, primarily of the British (though the French were not innocent) fueled a group of activist politicians called the War Hawks. Canada was just a plum the War Hawks hoped would fall into their laps, but was not the driving force.

I also think that trying to claim the National Anthem is "bigoted" is really pushing rope with a lot of assumptions and claims which lack much substance. Yes, Key was a bigoted slave owner, but there is nothing here which indicates he was referring to US slaves specifically. See:

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

Now I'm very much in agreement with Kaepernick's stance - his right to believe in it and the general statements about how Patriotism is a fig leaf used by people to help brand things for money and more importantly to justify a belief system which is bigoted. (i.e., wrap themselves in the flag and usually the cross/bible). I live in Texas and see this each and every day.

L-

[Hekate]

43. Yikes, kpete! My elementary school songbook included a lot of 2nd & 3rd verses,but omitted that one!

Not that we sang more than the first verse of most patriotic songs, but I would read them and eventually memorized a bunch.

[Egnever]

45. Well that is a pretty hyperbolic description

but an interesting bit of history none the less.

[onenote]

47. And now that you know that your post is inaccurate you stay silent.

Hmmmmmm.....

[B2G]

55. KPete only posts, never discusses his posts.

It's easier that way.

[burrowowl]

50. K&R!!!!!!

[lillypaddle]

51. That is not how I read that verse at all

I think you're stretching.

[Adrahil]

62. I think the post is misleading in a couple ways...

1) Although the verse appears to glory some in the death of the salve volunteers, it doesn't call for their execution, at least not clearly. It could be about their death in battle, which is how it reads to me.

2) Slavery was LEGAL in Britain until 1833. This was done as a tactic to raise troops and foment insurrection, not a righteous crusade. A similar tactic was undertaken during the revolution with mixed results.

[Unit 001]

63. This is the kind of stupid shit you see at other sites.

Thanks for an inane and untruthful post.

[SMC22307]

64. Why sweat the details when there's outrage to be had?

Some of the replies have been quite informative, though, so I'm thankful for that.

[roscoeroscoe]

68. I nominate "Hail Columbia!"

The original unofficial national anthem. Any reading of the background of America's own goddess, Columbia, is well worth while. Any google search will yield a mother lode of great info, but take a look at

http://carlanthonyonline.com/2013/07/06/uncle-sams-girlfriend-columbia-a-hot-star-he-dumped-part-3/

for a really nice article.

Columbia! America's own goddess of liberty!