Quote:Try reading the whole stanza including the phrase before that one? They weren't escaped slaves, they impressed conscripts forced to fight for the British. Impressment by the Royal Navy was a key, no pun intended, reason for the conflict, the same with Jefferson's fight with the Barbary Pirates some years before.

 

Okay, just read the whole thing, and was kinda surprised to see that it actually had, essentially, "In God we Trust" in the 4th verse.  I guess it was around before the Red Scare.

 

Anyway, I don't really see anything in the 2nd stanza that would somehow take that whole "vanquished slaves" message out of the 3rd stanza for those who, like me, see it as fairly obvious.

 

As for whether Francis Scott Key meant, in the 3rd stanza, black slaves seeking freedom in the welcoming arms of the British Navy or those of all races pressed into involuntary servitude by the evil Brits, I honestly don't know and don't really care.  As I've said, it's a weak argument to kneel for the anthem because of a racist verse nobody ever sings anyway.  But just reading the poem - it was a poem long before it became the anthem - and knowing the Brits offered freedom to slaves joining their side, I can see how it could be interpreted as condoning slavery.

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