The Star Spangled banner was written by Francis Scott Key September 13-14, 1814.  It was written during the Battle of Baltimore aboard a ship and on the way home.  For this single writing, Key was immortalized.  Who was Francis Scott Key ?  I don't recall learning this in my American History class in school but he would eventually become the District Attorney for our nation's capital from 1833-1840.  The father of 11 children would never know his song would become our national anthem.  Key died in January of 1843 at the age of 63 and Woodrow Wilson would declare by executive order the song be our national anthem in 1916.  The song would officially become the national anthem when it was declared by Congressional resolution in 1931 and signed by President Herbert Hoover.  The title of Key's poem was actually "Defence of Fort M'Henry."  During the War of 1812, Key was asked to accompany the British Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner to negotiate the release of prisoners, one of them was Dr. William Beanes, a friend of Keys.  The British obliged but forced the men to stay on a ship behind their forces as they were bombarding the American forces at Fort McHenry.  I'm sure you did learn this in your history class, at dawn, Key saw an American flag still waving and reported this to the prisoners below deck.  On the way back to Baltimore, he was inspired to write the rest of his poem describing what he saw.  Key published the poem in the Patriot on September 20, 1814.  He was not without his critics after becoming the D.A. for Washington, DC.  Key was a slave owner and on the record said slavery was "full of sin" and "a bed of torture."  He helped establish the American Colonization Society which advocated the transport of free African Americans to Africa. As DA he would defend slavery, yet freed 7 of his own slaves.  Before the court he would be neutral on it's abolishment.  As long as it was legal, Key would defend it.  Remember he was a prosecuting attorney and his job was to defend the law, not write it.  In the summer of 1835 abolitionists flooded Washington with anti-slavery publications that Key dubbed "incendiary publications" and in the spring of 1836 his prosecution of Dr. Reuben Crandall for bringing a trunk full of anti-slavery publications into the city made national news.  Abolitionists called Washington the "land of the free and the home of the oppressed."  Dr. Crandall would be acquitted. By all accounts I"ve read, Key was an amateur poet.  I consider myself an amateur poet also, but I highly doubt I will ever write something that will be recited two centuries later.  The gift of his Star Spangled Banner is, it transcends time.  I wonder if his family gets any royalties off this?

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