Key was a persuasive addition to the negotiating team because of his close family ties to both the United States and England. They were on a mission of mercy to negotiate the release of the elderly doctor William Beanes, a civilian non-combatant who had been taken prisoner by the British as they departed Washington DC after burning the White House and other government buildings. Agent for Prisoners of War, sailed from Baltimore down the Patapsco River hoping to meet the British fleet somewhere in the Chesapeake Bay. Myth #1: Francis Scott Key was held prisoner aboard a British ship during the bombardment of Baltimore.Ĭorrection: Key was aboard his own American truce ship during the battle. Building upon their work, several persistent myths about Key's song can now be qualified and corrected.
Library of Congress) have shed light on the anthem's history. Over the past century, however, researchers (often musicologists at the U.S. Whether by design or distance from the event, these second-hand accounts confuse as much as they clarify. Without a first-hand account of how his most famous words came to be, Key in effect left the task to others. Key’s song is first and foremost a celebration of their courage. He put these values into practice, leaving his own name off of the original printing of his lyric, and distributing the first thousand copies among the soldiers who had defended Fort McHenry.
Key seems to have felt that a patriotic lyric should not glorify its author, but rather the heroes whose actions inspired his pen. The author of the nation's anthem was rather modest about his lyrical talents and, while justly famous in his lifetime as the writer of "The Star-Spangled Banner," he never preserved a detailed account of its creation for posterity. The root of the confusion about the song’s history lies with Francis Scott Key (1779–1843) himself. The anthem's upcoming bicentennial year, however, offers the opportunity for musicians to share recent scholarship on the anthem with audiences across the nation. Information about the song is certainly easy to find, but only rarely does it penetrate the surface of myth. Francis Scott Key's song is so well known as to be all but unknown. Yet the very centrality of "The Star-Spangled Banner" to American identity obscures the specifics of its history. "Old Glory" and the song for which it stands are essential components of American dreamings. The very idea of nation is impossible without symbols that spark a unifying imagination-the ability of a large, diverse people to see itself as an interconnected whole. "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1814) plays a vital role in bringing together the United States of America.
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