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The Man Who Wrote the Star-Spangled Banner
Francis Scott Key’s View of Black Americans
With the crash bringing down the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, attention has come to the man himself. You know Francis Scott Key, don’t you? He wrote the Star-Spangled Banner. But how much do you know about him? Thanks to my high school classmate, Jefferson Morley, whose book Snow-Storm in August features Key, I know much more than I did. There is another book named Snowstorm in August (without a hyphen) by Marshall Karp, which I’m sure is a fine book, but it is not the one I’m talking about.
Snow-Storm in August by Jefferson Morley: 9780307477484 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
I remembered that Key watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry from a ship, and when dawn came, he was amazed to see the US flag still flying over the fort. I knew he was aboard a British ship, hoping to negotiate the return of his friend Dr. William Beanes, who’d annoyed British forces who had returned from sacking the Capitol to the point where they arrested him. This was two years into the War of 1812. I didn’t know Lieutenant Francis Scott Key had been leading troops defending the Capitol until…
