Cato Institute headline questioning if national anthem is racist.

Explanation: Title of an online article from the CATO Institute addressing current charges that Central's use of the give-and-take slave in his third stanza of his poem is racist.

Before you offset this long blog article, know that information technology is 1814 words in length.  With good editing I probably could have gotten downwards to 1500 words, just the poem was published in 1814.  The boxing took identify in 1814.  Why not keep information technology at 1814 words?

If you are looking for a black & white solution to a problem involving humans and our guild, don't come to the humanities. As a bill of fare carrying historian I can say we in the humanities detect comfort in grayness-- from charcoal to fog. As such, we excel at moderating problems involving humans: messy bug, nuanced problems, and complex bug.

Whereas the sciences are peculiarly adept at finding solutions to bug involving variables that tin be measured, controlled, and manipulated; the humanities seek solutions that seem best to fit the known facts. Whereas the sciences provide solutions that are exact and tin be supported by statistical bear witness generalized to the much larger population, the humanities only aim to provide a solution that seems logical and correct. We seek verisimilar, or seemingly real, solutions based on narrative prove placed within the context of the human being experience. There is no right or wrong approach between the two, scientific discipline and humanities, there are simply bug better suited for one than the other.

A current issue particularly suited to the humanities is: What people were Francis Scott Key referring to in the tertiary stanza of our National Anthem when he says "...No refuge could relieve the hireling and slave, From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.." ?

A screenshot of the third stanza of the National Anthem containg the phrase hirelings and slave.

CAPTION: Screen capture of Fundamental'southward tertiary stanza of the Defense of Fort M'Henry

In the last iii years much has been said nearly Francis Scott Key'due south use of the phrase "hirelings and slaves" in the third verse of the the Star Spangled Banner, or the Defence of Fort M'Henry as written past Fundamental. Some say information technology is a sure sign of his racism considering information technology glories in the fear and death of slaves brought about by the American victory. Others believe it references his contempt for those enslaved people of Maryland and Virginia who escaped chains, fled to the British, served in the British Army and Navy, and fought against United states of america forces during the defense force of Baltimore. Still others believe it was only a rhetorical tool referring to the King's troops. We will never know the reply, but from within the humanities History and Literature may help us out.

HISTORY

Screen shot of US 1820 Census from Georgetown, District of Columbia, show Francis S Key as owning five slaves.

Caption:  Screen capture of 1820 US Demography from Georgetown (DC) showing that Francis S. Key endemic 5 enslaved people. (Ancestry.com)

Nosotros know through historical research that Fundamental was a slave holder, and that the British waged a cruel campaign against the civilian population of the Chesapeake. As part of that campaign enslaved people were incited to flee to British protection and thereby destroy the local economic system. Historians take proven that the British ready up a depot for escaped Black men at Tangier Island and recruited them into the British Colonial Marines in order to fight the US. Furthermore, reports by the British commanders in the Chesapeake commented on the effectiveness of escaped slaves as scouts against US defenses.

Photo of three reenactors dressed as Black Colonial Marines rfrom the War of 1812.

Explanation: Three living historians interpret British Colonial Marines from the War of 1812.  (Courtesy of PBS)

However, the vast majority of enslaved Blacks did not ascension upward during the entrada. Many Blacks, both free and enslaved, proved crucial to the defense of the Chesapeake. Historians have documented their service in the U.s. Navy during the war, with Josh Barney's "Mosquito Fleet" during the Chesapeake Campaign, and at Fort McHenry itself during the battle.

Image of Black man, Charles Ball, in uniform as a US sailor in the War of 1812.

Explanation: Analogy of US sailor Charles Brawl during the War of 1812.  A former slave, Ball served in Commodore Joh Barney'due south Chesapeake Bay Flotilla and served in the Boxing of Bladensburg. (Courtesy of the National Park Service)

By transcribing the original papers, Stevenson University history majors proved that free Blacks and enslaved Black men were crucial to the defence force of Baltimore in 1814. They were paid to dig trenches (ane/2 the rate of pay of whites), and they were recruited to replace Baltimore's white firemen who were in the militia at North Signal.

Document recruiting Black men for Baltimore fire company durting the defense of Baltimore in 1814.

CAPTION: A letter from a burn down company to Baltimore Mayor Johnson simply a short while before the British attack in September 1814.  He lets the Mayor know that his company is recruiting Blackness men to fight fires since the white firemen are all in the militia.  He suggests each Black firewoman will wear a badge protecting him while engaged in firefighting.  When non engaged, the firewoman is to accept the badge off.  Left unsaid is what the Black firefighter is beingness protected from. (Maryland State Athenaeum)

Document compelling free Blacks to work on fortifications at Baltimore in 1814.

CAPTION: Alphabetic character from MG Samuel Smith, Commander of US Forces at Baltimore, recommending that Baltimore'due south Committee of Safety and Vigilance, led by Mayor Johnson, compel all gratuitous Blackness men to help build fortifications, or supply a substitute.  The men would be paid for their effort, albeit a different sum than white men.  (Maryland State Athenaeum)

List of Black Men who helped dig entrenchments at Baltimore for 50 cents per day

CAPTION:  A listing of 32 free Black men who worked a solar day on Baltimore'south defenses.  Each was paid l cents for the day.  White men were paid $1.00 for the day.  (Maryland Country Archives)

LITERATURE

The written report of literature provides the humanities student a grounding in a variety of literary tools to include rhetorical devices such every bit ingemination, allusion, metaphors, similes, and hyperbole. Among these tools is the epithet, divers as "a descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or matter mentioned." In 18th and 19th Century literature, particularly poems, epithets were widely used. We experience the aforementioned descriptive phrases today across social media.

If you search Newspapers.com for "hireling and slave" your initial results volition uncover current manufactures discussing our problems with Cardinal's words in the National Canticle. Yet, if you lot narrow the search to Primal'southward fourth dimension, 1780-1816, yous will see that slave and hireling were each used in a debasing manner to describe free people carrying out the wishes of a more powerful person. This is similar to China'due south Communist newspapers calling our South Vietnamese allies "running dogs" or "puppets" during the Vietnam War.

Every bit proof that all Key did in his third verse was employ a rhetorical device, I submit the following evidence. In 1813, in the midst of the War of 1812, and a total year before Key penned the "Defence of Fort 1000'Henry," some other poet used the words hirelings and slaves in a verse form to describe the King'due south soldiers during the Revolutionary War at the Battle of Bunker Hill. In the poem "The Death of Warren" from the Trenton True American, published on 15 May 1813 in the Lancaster Intelligencer and Periodical, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the poet describes:

",,,,,When tyrant George assailed our shore,

and thousands of his slaves sent o'er,

With power to kill, inflict each ill.

Our towns to fire that nosotros might mourn.

And make us to his sway return.

A sway that was slavish and foreign."

The poet continues in a later poetry:

"Now How(e), who had the main command

of George'due south troops within our state,

Addresses thus his hireling ring:

'To stand us they are not able.

Behold (he cries) the motly host,

And quickly bulldoze them from their mail;

And as y'all live no quarter requite,

Mind no prayer, not one spare;

For vengeance we will have that's rare.

And destroy every Yankee Insubordinate.'

And, thus, from a literary standpoint we have nevertheless another explanation for Key'south words.

Poem published in a newspaper in 1813 that uses hireling and slave to desribe NBritish soldiers in the American Revolution at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

CAPTION:  Screen capture of a poem from Newspapers.com.  Entitled "The Death of Warren" it is well-nigh the Us defense of Bunker Hill during the American Revolution.  Like Key, the poet uses the words hirelings and slaves to describe the British soldiers employed by the King.  (Newspapers.com)

Analysis

We are presented with at least three possible answers regarding why Primal used the words slave and hireling in his poem. The offset is that Key was a racist and was happy to see enslaved blacks in fear and the grave. The second is that Key was specifically referencing onetime enslaved Black who now fought against the The states forces as part of Britain's Colonial Marines. The tertiary is that Key's utilize of the words slave and hireling were simply a rhetorical device.

The argument that Key was racist may or may not be true. For those who believe Fundamental literally meant every word equally written in the poem, their prove is revealed in his slave ownership and his statements from court cases. However, the evidence supporting that statement is at all-time circumstantial, and information technology doesn't explain the phrase hireling coupled with slave. In my personal opinion, based on our research, Key may very well accept been a racist. Evidence reveals that not only was he a slaveholder, but parts of the Key family moved into the Deep South rather than deal with growing dissatisfaction in Maryland with the institution of slavery. Did this personal racism, if in fact he was a racist, color his words in the third stanza? They could have.

The 2d rationale for his words relates to the facts surrounding enslaved Blacks fleeing to the British and fighting on their side. This, our inquiry reveals, may accept had a much stronger foundation in fact. Equally an officer at the Boxing of Bladensburg--the US defeat that led to the burning of Washington, DC--Key would take heard how former enslaved Blackness men served as scouts to lead the British Army effectually US defenses in the surface area. He would have been familiar with Black enslaved families fleeing to British protection and serving the British military machine. Erstwhile slaves, though now paid by the British, those Blackness men would accept the status of both hirelings and slaves. Would he have wanted to come across them in fear and in the grave? Undoubtedly. Only these were a relatively modest number of men: 300 out of 5,000 British troops, or roughly 6% of the force. The British force that landed to assault Baltimore included some of the about experienced British Regulars from the Napoleonic Wars. This was the "sparse cherry-red line" that had defeated and so many armies earlier. These were the troops the US militia feared the most--the Regulars. Men who often had no skill other than being in the Army, but were good fighters. These British Regulars reportedly inspired the Duke of Wellington, their commander in Europe, to say: " I don't know what effect these men will have on the enemy, but by God, they terrify me." Far amend to trumpet the belief that their defeat at US hands in Baltimore caused them great fear and led them to their grave as Key seems to be proverb nearly the hirelings and slaves in his poem. Once again, while Key may have meant the Black Colonial Marines when describing hireling and slave, it doesn't ring as true as describing the vaunted, haughty British Navy, Majestic Marines, and Army as such.

Finally, Primal's use of hireling and slave as a rhetorical device. Based on the widespread use of hireling and slave as a an epithet in the US press during the lead-upward to and waging of the War of 1812, I believe information technology is entirely credible that Primal used hireling and slave in that way. His poem was not meant to arouse anything simply patriotic fervor through recognition of Baltimore'south defense. The narrative of the Us David defeating the British war machine Goliath was cardinal to his theme, not communicating his beliefs about chattel slavery as adept in the Chesapeake region. With Bible societies on the rise in the Usa as well equally a ascent tide of abolitionism, such a display of racism would take caused issues both in the North as well every bit Baltimore. The third largest city in the US at the time with the largest population of free Blacks in the United states, free Blacks--and enslaved Blacks-- who had but helped save the metropolis, Baltimore was in no mood for racist rhetoric the day after its major victory.

CONCLUSION

At the outset of this piece I suggested that the solutions found by the humanities to many problems are those that merely seem real and authentic. The solutions that spin a narrative that best seem to fit the facts and context as known at that time are what we seek in the humanities. Modify the context or the known facts and y'all may decide on a different explanation and solution for the problem. In this rather wearisome piece I accept presented the bear witness equally I know it and tried to place it within the context of which I am aware. Based on that, I believe Primal simply used the phrase "hireling and slave" every bit a rhetorical device in his poem Defence force of Fort M'Henry in guild to describe the British Army and Navy repelled from Baltimore's door in September 1814. In the true spirit of the humanities, even so, if you provide me evidence that changes what I know, I merely might change my mind.

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