Francis Scott Key

On September 13, 1814, when the War of 1812 (1812–15) was entering its third year, the Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key traveled to Baltimore to try to negotiate the release of a hostage. That night, Key—a staunch anti-abolitionist who enslaved people—watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry. The next morning, when he saw that the fort’s American flag had not been removed, he wrote a poem that was first published as “Defense of Fort M’Henry” and set to a popular British tune. His song was subsequently renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and more than a century later, in 1931, Congress adopted it as the national anthem.

During Key’s lifetime, abolitionists recognized that the line “the land of the free” was penned by an advocate of slavery with narrow views of freedom. Professional athletes, including Colin Kaepernick, have amplified this contradiction by “taking a knee” during the national anthem to protest systemic racism today.