The History Channel original podcast.
History This Week, October 19th, 1814.
I'm Sally Helms.
A Wednesday evening show at the Holiday Street Theater in Baltimore.
It's the fifth performance out of 24 in the season, but this is the show that history will remember.
The audience files into a new brick theater building.
The room is likely candlelit.
And outside the walls of the Holiday Street Theatre, the War of 1812 is raging.
One set piece for the show is an epic painting depicting a battle that happened a month earlier in this very city.
Baltimore defended itself successfully against a large and powerful British fleet.
Theater performances at this time are often like variety acts, with many different parts that could overall run five or six hours.
First up this evening is a historical play in five acts Count Benyovsky or The Conspiracy of Kamchatka.
After that, the audience hears a, quote, much admired new song.
Then there's a military hornpipe danced by Miss Abercrombie.
And finally, a comic song, The Patriotic Diggers, performed by a Mr. Blissett.
One of these acts will stand the test of time.
It will continue to be performed up through the present day.
It is not the historical play in five acts about the conspiracy of Kamchatka.
It is, instead, that much-admired new song.
Its title?
The Star Spangled Banner.
Audiences at the time would have known exactly what the lyrics of this song were about.
They describe that big recent battle.
The people of Baltimore just lived through it.
But today?
I think that most people who sing it don't know what they're singing about, really.
But I think it's a story worth telling because it was a moment of insecurity in American history that could have changed world history for sure.
But it has a lot of twists and turns.
The story includes a wartime captive, a strange, awkward lunch and an amateur poet marooned on a ship.
It centers on one complicated man, Francis Scott Keith.
A man who owned slaves and who, as a lawyer, defended both slave catchers and enslaved people themselves.
The same man who famously gave us those words about the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Today, who was Francis Scott Key?
The man whose song is now sung over and over in stadiums and on podiums and in high school gyms all over the country.
And when Americans sing about the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air...
What exactly is the story behind those words?
For this episode, we interviewed two experts.
And one of the first questions we asked each of them was what is your favorite version of the Star Spangled Banner?
Whitney Houston's at the Super Bowl.
Just the ease that she sings it.
It's effortless for her.
Tim Grove is right.
It's definitely worth listening to if you haven't.
Grove is a historian and the author of many books for young adults, including one about the Star-Spangled Banner, both The Song and The Flag.
He's seen the very banner that inspired Francis Scott Key.
It's now at the Smithsonian, where Grove worked as a consultant.
He told us it's enormous.
I mean, it's about a quarter of the size of a basketball court.
So it's huge.
More on that later.
We also spoke to historian and journalist Mark Leipson, who doesn't have a favorite version of the song.
No, I think just the standard works for me.
Leipson's expertise isn't necessarily the anthem, but rather the man who wrote it, Francis Scott Key.
Leipson wrote a biography of Key that was published in 2014.
He's just known for this one thing, right?
And it's sort of an amazing thing, writing what would become our national anthem.
But it turns out there's a lot more to the guy.
Francis Scott Key was born in 1779 and grew up in Maryland on his family plantation called Terra Rubra, meaning red earth.
He had a very privileged existence growing up.
His family was very well off.
They had enslaved people taking care of all their needs.
And Key would continue the practice of slavery after he grew up and became a lawyer.
He enslaved human beings his entire life.
You can read letters that he wrote.
They're chilling to read today.
Letters that are a brutal reminder of the inhumanity of slavery and the casual way slave owners talked about it.
You know, writing to his mother saying, hey, here's I have something for you.
I have this woman.
She's strong and she comes with a little girl and I can ship them up by wagon anytime you want.
Key ends up marrying a woman named Mary Taylor Lloyd. the daughter of Colonel Edward Lloyd IV.
He might have been the richest man in the colony of Maryland.
Huge plantation, hundreds of enslaved people.
In fact, Frederick Douglass, perhaps the most famous abolitionist who ever lived, was born enslaved on Colonel Lloyd's plantation.
They never knew who his father was.
And the rumors were that it could have been an overseer.
It could have been Colonel Lloyd's son.
It could have been Colonel Lloyd.
It's not beyond the realm of possibility that Frederick Douglass could have been Francis Scott Key's brother-in-law.
To be clear, there's no proof of this.
Douglas himself searched for the truth about his father and never got it beyond these rumors that he was a powerful white man on the plantation.
Francis Scott Key did certainly have one famous brother-in-law, Roger Tawney, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, who authored the infamous Dred Scott decision, in which the court held that rights for citizens enshrined in the Constitution did not apply to African Americans.
As prominent as slavery was in his life.
Key's relationship with race is actually a little more complicated.
He supported the institution of slavery, but he was opposed to slave trafficking, which today seems like a distinction without a difference.
But it meant that as a lawyer in Georgetown, just outside Washington DC, Key would sometimes represent the interests of enslaved people and freed slaves free of charge.
He helped enslaved people as well as free people, and he did it for free.
On the other hand, you can go through the records, and he defended slave catchers.
Slave owners would hire these people called slave catchers to go and grab people off the street and take them back to Virginia or North Carolina or the Deep South somewhere.
If this sounds contradictory, that's because it is.
Lipson says you saw these same contradictions in the lives of many figures in the early republic.
Read what Jefferson said about slavery.
He's the one who used the words an abomination.
And yet, you know, he owned hundreds of slaves throughout his whole life.
It was by no means unique that people who enslaved individuals spoke out against how evil the institution of slavery was, but still didn't find it in their hearts to manumit their slaves.
Manumit, meaning to set free.
This kind of hypocrisy was part of the time in which these people lived.
And this was the America, this young, contradictory country that went to war with the British again for a second time in 1812.
The War of 1812 is sometimes called the Forgotten War, meaning most people completely forget what it was about.
But the stakes were high.
Tim Grove told us.
Sometimes it's called the Second War for Independence, because if the British won the War of 1812, who knows we might have gone back to being ruled by Britain.
I mean, there was that possibility.
America had won its war for independence just 29 years earlier.
The country was very much still finding its footing.
Meanwhile, the British and the French were engaged in a war for dominance in Europe, and the young United States wanted to keep trading with both.
But the powerful British Navy did not want that, so they would hang around US ports and board US trade ships.
Sometimes they'd take sailors from those ships and say to them, you're in the British Navy now.
The British also allied with Native Americans to stop the US from expanding its borders westward.
And eventually, President James Madison decided all this action justified a war.
There's also a group of war hawks in Congress who agree.
So in 1812, the U.S.
Congress issues its first declaration of war.
Madison signs it and the War of 1812 begins.
Well, I was down on my last dollar.
Then I started saving cause.
The bank said fiscal restraint is what you're craving.
So I put my earnings in a high yield account.
Let the savings compound and the interest my.
I'm optimizing cash flow, putting debt in check.
Now time is my friend and I have a pain in the neck.
And we've got a little cash to rebuild the old deck.
Boring money moves make kind of lame songs, but they sound pretty sweet to your wallet.
PNC Bank.
Brilliantly boring since 1865.
Hey, everyone.
I'm Josh Radner and I am so excited to tell you about How We Made Your Mother a rewatch podcast, looking back at how I met your mother.
And I'm here with Craig Thomas, who co-created the show along with Carter Bays.
Hi, Craig.
Hey, Josh.
And we thought that made this a perfect time to look back, see what the hell we did and why the show still seems to resonate with fans around the world today.
Follow and listen to How We Made Your Mother wherever you get your podcasts.
The American public was divided on whether this was a good idea.
Certainly not everyone was for the war.
It was a very split population.
It was basically a north-south split in general, with Southerners favoring war and Northerners being against it.
Francis Scott Key lived on the dividing line between North and South and he was originally against the war.
At first, the fighting didn't really impact his life.
But eventually, Mark Leapson said, British forces made the war impossible to ignore.
They started coming up the Chesapeake Bay and marauding along the coasts of Maryland and Virginia.
And it was getting a little bit too close for comfort for Keith.
So he changed his mind.
He decides to join a militia.
But before he's even officially in uniform, the British start marching towards Washington, D.C.
And Key goes out to the battlefield in Bladensburg, Maryland.
He kind of thought maybe he knew the terrain and could help out, but he didn't do much.
He showed up and then got out of there.
In the end, Bladensburg was a terrible defeat for the American military.
The British dubbed it the Bladensburg Races because they kind of turned and ran.
And then what happened?
They burned Washington, D.C.
They burned the White House, they burned the Congressional Library and they burned other federal buildings.
There are burn marks in the basement of the White House still today from when it was burned in 1814.
And really, we don't know what would have happened after that, but there was a giant rainstorm.
And that put an end to that and the British troops left Washington, D.C.
Side note here some of the British troops in DC that day actually included people who had until recently been enslaved in the United States.
Tim Grove told us a few months earlier, the main British general in charge, Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, had issued a proclamation directed to the enslaved population, promising them freedom and the choice to serve in the military or just to resettle somewhere else.
And so many enslaved people found their way to the British ships in the Chesapeake Bay.
Sometimes entire families went out together by canoe. more than 4,000 people ended up free.
I think the motivation behind it was not humanitarian.
It was more a military strategy.
But they did resettle all of the refugees.
Okay, back to Key, who returns to Georgetown, where he can see smoke from the buildings burning in his nation's capital.
Soon after this defeat and his brief appearance on the battlefield, Key gets pulled into the war again.
This time, because of a man named Dr. William Beans.
Dr. Beans was a family friend of the Keys.
He's in his 60s, a veteran of the Revolution, living in Upper Marlborough Maryland, where British soldiers are sort of running around causing mayhem.
And so he decides to organize a group of men to go after those soldiers.
They captured several British soldiers and throw some of them in the local jail.
One of the British soldiers escapes and the next night returns to Dr Bean's home and takes him out of his bed at midnight, forced to ride on a horse 35 miles to Benedict Maryland and took him on board one of the British ships.
Dr. Beans is now a British prisoner.
His friends are outraged and they realize that they have to act quickly or he'll be taken somewhere, and who knows what will happen to him.
So they contact the governor of Maryland and try to get the release, but nothing works.
The Beans family is panicked and, Mark Leipson told us, they decide to reach out to Frank Key.
Frank, that's how he was known to his friends and family.
Now, Frank was a big lawyer in D.C.
He was famous for his oratory and for how convincing he was before juries.
So they wanted this guy to argue their case with the Brits.
Basically, get on board a British ship, negotiate, and bring Dr. Beans home.
And Key says...
I'll do it.
During the War of 1812, prisoner releases and prisoner exchanges were common.
And he got on his horse and he rode up from Georgetown to Baltimore where he met Skinner.
John Skinner was an agent for the government, someone who specialized in prisoner exchanges.
He brought a bit of leverage with him.
Letters from British soldiers currently imprisoned in America writing about how well they had been treated.
They hoped this would help convince the British to release Dr. Beans.
Key and Skinner don't know exactly where the British ships are.
But they get on a sloop and head out into the Chesapeake Bay.
And eventually they find the fleet which is, at that very moment, preparing for some kind of attack.
There's a whole armada out there.
But nevertheless, around 2 p.m., Key and Skinner are welcomed on board the HMS Tonnant.
They sat down and had lunch or dinner and drank some wine with the Brits.
It must have been awkward.
I would have loved to have been at that table.
I like to imagine Francis Scott Key, who certainly, I'm sure, never imagined himself having a meal on the flagship of the British Navy, which has just been attacking his country.
It must have been very surreal.
Dr. Beans, meanwhile, is still being held prisoner.
And Skinner and Key start arguing for his release.
It's going well.
Until one British officer makes some anti-American comment.
Tim Grove told us, Skinner apparently was not pleased.
He held his tongue at first, but then couldn't take it.
And he got defensive.
And the heated exchange happened.
But those letters from the British prisoners saved the day.
At one point abruptly, British General Robert Ross says Mr Skinner gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the kindness with which our officers left at Bladensburg have been treated.
I wish you therefore to say to him, Dr Beans, and to the friends of Dr Beans, that on that account, and not from any opinion of his own merit, he shall be released to return with you.
And that's it.
Key's famous oratory didn't really play into it, but Dr. Beans is free.
And Key thinks... This is so great.
Tomorrow we'll be on our way with Beans and it's been very successful and this is all working out great.
However, the British say not so fast.
While Key and Skinner were on the ship.
Leipson said the British have been preparing for a massive attack on Baltimore.
They were about to unleash the biggest sustained bombing campaign in the history of warfare.
Key and Skinner might have seen or heard some preparations.
At the very least, they know where the British are.
So the Brits can't let these Americans go yet.
They say, You're going to have to wait until we start this battle and destroy Baltimore.
Jack Daniels and music are made for each other.
They share a rhythm in the craft of making something timeless, while being a part of legendary nights, from backyard jams to sold out arenas.
There's a song in every toast.
This episode is brought to you by LifeLock.
It's Cybersecurity Awareness Month and LifeLock has tips to protect your identity use strong passwords, set up multifactor authentication, report phishing and update the software on your devices.
And for comprehensive identity protection.
Let LifeLock alert you to suspicious uses of your personal information.
LifeLock also fixes identity theft, guaranteed or your money back.
Stay smart, safe, and protected with a 30-day free trial at LifeLock.com slash podcast.
Terms apply.
At New Balance, we believe if you run, you're a runner.
However you choose to do it.
Because when you're not worried about doing things the right way, you're free to discover your way.
And that's what running is all about.
Run your way at newbalance.com slash running.
Francis Scott Key and his companions are corralled onto the sloop they came in on, tethered to a British ship, the HMS Surprise.
Not quite imprisoned, but not free to go.
And the Battle of Baltimore is about to begin.
This is a high stakes confrontation.
Baltimore is the third largest city in the U.S., a big shipbuilding center vital to the war effort.
The British have a particular hostility towards the city because it's known to harbor privateers, Americans who would go out and plunder British merchant ships.
Grove told us.
The British called Baltimore a nest of pirates.
So they really, really hated Baltimore.
The battle has a land front and a naval front.
On land five miles outside the city, That same General Robert Ross who had released beans.
He leads the British forces into Baltimore.
But he's killed by an American sharpshooter.
And the British retreat.
The next day, the British Navy, plus Frank Key and company, move into Baltimore Harbor.
Their ships have names like Terror, Meteor, Devastation.
Baltimore is protected by Fort McHenry, a star-shaped fortification at the mouth of the harbor.
The British strategy?
If the fort falls, Baltimore falls.
And so they begin a terrifying bombardment.
The people of Baltimore can hear it and feel it. one citizen wrote to his wife.
The firing at the fort has just commenced.
Don't wonder if my writing looks as if my hand trembles for the house begins to shake.
I don't think that anyone present had ever experienced anything like it.
The pounding, just the noise. the ferocity of the battle.
The bombardment lasts for 25 hours.
Not just bombs, but also rockets.
They whistled as they flew.
Key and his companions watched from the deck of their ship.
At 3 o'clock in the morning on September 14th, it stopped.
It was pitch dark and it had been raining, so the visibility was very poor.
Key and Skinner and Beans didn't know who won the battle.
They just knew it was over.
You know, they didn't have any, you know, no one was tweeting out, we won, you know.
There was no communication whatsoever.
So they paced the deck until what?
The dawn's early light.
And then Key had his glass on Fort McHenry.
And there was a flag on the flagpole, but it had rained all night and that flag was hanging limp.
Key couldn't tell whether it was a British flag or an American flag.
Well, the troops at McHenry took it down and put up a second flag.
And the wind blew, and he saw that our flag was still there.
So not only did he know that the flag was there, but he knew that the British were defeated.
The flag was huge.
The stars were two feet across from point to point, and the stripes were two feet tall.
Key was awestruck.
That's his kind of moment of inspiration when he sees the flag flying.
Apparently he had an old letter in his pocket and he takes it out and starts scribbling words on the back of it.
Key had written poems before, just for friends and family.
And both the experts we talked to said he likely also had a melody in mind.
It was taken from an existing song, Anacreon in Heaven.
The tune had been used for other political songs in the past, and Key would have known it.
So he starts writing what would become the anthem right there on the boat.
And he finishes it in his hotel.
All four verses.
There's a part in verse three that many people don't know.
Key writes no refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.
He may have been talking about those enslaved people who made their way to the British ships in order to get their freedom.
He says Some people interpret that as Key rejoicing in the death of these formerly enslaved soldiers who fought on the British side.
We only sing the first verse today, but these lyrics are part of the anthem as Key wrote it.
He shows the poem to Skinner, who had been by his side the whole night.
Skinner shows it to a friend of his who shares it around.
Eventually, it ends up in the local paper.
It gets a really positive reception.
People thought it captured the moment very well.
And so it eventually was printed in newspapers up and down the East Coast, New York Washington, Boston.
And it's performed publicly for the first time about a month after the battle, at Baltimore's Holiday Street Theater.
That's where it first gets its name, the Star-Spangled Banner.
The song becomes a well-known patriotic tune, but it doesn't become the national anthem in Key's lifetime.
In fact, there is no national anthem yet.
And Key doesn't go on to become a great American songwriter.
He goes back to being a lawyer.
Andrew Jackson eventually appoints him district attorney of Washington, D.C.
There, he takes on some notable cases where he attacks the abolition movement.
In his personal life, Key has become a supporter of the American Colonization Society, which advocated for the deportation of African Americans to Africa.
Basically thought that the races could not exist in harmony together.
Key dies in 1843.
But the Star-Spangled Banner continues to be popular.
In the late 1800s, the Army and Navy make it one of their official songs.
In 1918, it's sung at the World Series for the first time.
And people start introducing legislation to make it the national anthem.
But it faced some obstacles.
It's hard to sing, right?
If you're a man and you start on a high note, you're cooked.
When you come to the rock that you're at, glare and the bomb's bursting in the air.
In the 1930s, proponents of the anthem took an extra step to convince their fellow legislators.
They brought a soprano to sing the song in Congress, and it did pass.
So it has only been the official national anthem since 1931.
This song, written during the forgotten War of 1812, becomes part of the American tradition.
And those words, the land of the free and the home of the brave, are ingrained into American life.
But Mark Leipson reminds us.
You cannot argue with the fact that when he said in the land of the free and the home of the brave, There were a million enslaved people when he wrote those words.
That's inarguable.
Even during Key's lifetime, there were people who called attention to the idea that America was not the land of the free for everyone.
One abolitionist broadside from the mid-1830s read the land of the free, the home of the oppressed.
Above drawings depicting scenes of slavery, including one of enslaved people being led past the Capitol building.
So people have long argued that those words are not a reality, but that they might instead be something to struggle towards.
As Tim Grove put it, The definition of freedom and for who, has changed over time as it should and it should be ultimately, freedom for all.
So the ideal embedded in the song is still, I would say, a pure ideal that is worthy of striving toward.
Thanks for listening to history this week for more moments throughout history that are also worth watching.
Check your local tv listings to find out what's on the history channel today.
This episode was produced by Ben Dickstein.
By the way, his favorite version of the national anthem is by the trumpeter, Arturo Sandoval, at the Orange Bowl in 2009.
It's amazing.
Check it out.
History This Week is also produced by McKamey Lynn, Julie Magruder, and me, Sally Helm.
Our researcher is Emma Fredericks.
Our editor and sound designer is Dan Rosato.
Our executive producers are Jesse Katz and Ted Butler.
Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review History This Week, wherever you get your podcasts, and we will see you next week.
