Activists have already started a baseless smear campaign in demanding Francis Scott Key’s name be dropped from any rebuilt bridge.
Almost immediately after the Francis Scott Key Bridge fell into the Baltimore Harbor, the vulturous left began circling the wreckage, seeing the tragedy as an opportunity to disparage America’s past.
The bridge’s namesake, famous lawyer-poet Francis Scott Key, has been a target of ridicule for anti-American revisionist historians for several years now. With the destruction of the bridge, the left all-too-gladly resumed its effort to erase Key’s memory from our national consciousness as a part of its endless crusade against notable figures in American history.
“Who was Francis Scott Key, the controversial poet the bridge is named after?” The breathlessly asked. After summarizing Key’s life and begrudgingly recounting the inherent heroism of how Key authored “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the Battle of Baltimore amid the War of 1812, the article descends into baseless accusations unmoored from fact.
The Post alleged that “The Star-Spangled Banner” did not become the national anthem until 1931 “because of controversy” surrounding the poem, “partly over Key’s racist views.” The third stanza’s reference to “the hireling and slave,” the author claimed, “was intended to mock or threaten African Americans who escaped slavery to join the British forces, after being promised land in exchange for their service.”
Indeed, some activists have demanded that the rebuilt bridge drop the Francis Scott Key name altogether, claiming that since Key owned slaves, renaming it after him would be another of America’s “spit-in-the-face insults to Black Americans.” Similarly, Georgia Republican Rep. Mike Collins suggested that Baltimore’s current leaders would undoubtedly rename the bridge when it came time, asking his social media followers to throw out their jocular predictions for the new name. But before we leap headlong into erasing Key, we should examine whether there is any merit to the allegations or if it is just another historical hit job.
The record shows the left’s claims are either not true or seriously misrepresented. The phrase “hireling and slave” had been used in military poems since at least the Revolutionary War to refer to British soldiers, highlighting their servile service to the tyrannical English rule. There is no evidence to suggest Key intended a racial reading of what was, at the time, a familiar phrase.
