The Third Verse

Guest Today: James Benn 

It's my pleasure this Monday, to bring back my fellow historical mystery writer James Benn.  For us today he has a bit of American history that resonates with what our country is going through in these challenging times.  His post is about a song most Americans think they know by heart, and it is  perfect story for the time between Flag Day and the 4th of July. 

A lot has changed since Colin Kaepernick first took a knee during the Star Spangled Banner in 2016. The National Football League has apologized for not listening to the concerns of African American players and taking a knee has spread throughout society as a symbol of protest against racial injustice.

But it’s still a divisive subject, as evidenced by the recent reaction to kneeling by members of the United States national soccer team.

All this led me to wonder, how much do I really know about the song which has become our national anthem?  We all remember the story of Francis Scott Key watching the rockets’ red glare at Baltimore. So I took a look at the lyrics. It turns out there’s more to the story, as there always is, once you dig deeper into history.

The first verse is, of course, instantly familiar. But there are four verses. I can’t say I’ve ever heard any of them sung, or even had any idea that they existed. The third verse stopped me in my tracks.

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave from . . . the gloom of the grave.
           

What is Francis Scott Key talking about?

It turns out he’s referring to the Corps of Colonial Marines, a Black unit of escaped, formerly enslaved men fighting in the War of 1812 on the side of the British. Rear Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane ordered the raising of the force, promising transport to freedom for any escaped slaves and their families, as well as the offer of service in His Majesty’s military. Cochrane’s second in command, Sir George Cockburn of the Royal Navy, raised over 6,000 troops from such escapees. He trained and armed a strong force of ex-slaves, some of whom stormed Washington D.C. when the British burned the White House, then called the President’s House.

Francis Scott Key certainly would have recalled his own humiliation and defeat from his personal encounter with those Black troops.

            A company of the Colonial Marines fought at the Battle of Bladensburg, where Francis Scott Key served as a civilian aide to the American commander. The battle was one of the worst routs in American military history, even though the American militia outnumbered the attacking British. The defeat at Bladensburg opened the road to Washington D.C. which led to the burning of the capital. There is no lack of irony here: the home of the president, built by slave labor, was put to the torch by those formerly enslaved men now fighting for their freedom and the freedom of their families.
            What Francis Scott Key—a slave owner himself—was espousing in that third verse was the fervent wish that no escaped slave should ever depart with the British and find a life of freedom outside the United States. The “gloom of the grave” was to be their punishment for fighting against their masters—and, perhaps, for the mortification Key felt as a fervent anti-abolitionist, hightailing it down the road from Bladensburg, Black troops on his heels.

            At the end of the war, the United States government insisted upon a return of all American property held by the British—meaning Blacks who had escaped to fight those who enslaved them. The British refused and provided transport for all Colonial Marines to Canada, Bermuda, or Trinidad. British Captain James Ross, who led the troops at Bladensburg and on to Washington, wrote of the Colonial Marines: “Their conduct was marked by great spirit and vivacity, and perfect obedience.”
            The Colonial Marines fought and died for freedom—a freedom denied them under the banner Francis Scott Key wrote about so movingly. And that’s a story that ought to be told and taught, because it’s as much a part of the American story as the bombs bursting in air.

James R. Benn is the author of the Billy Boyle WWII mystery series. The fifteenth novel releases 9/1/20.