..."And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave..."
This verse doesn't get a lot of play, but Mssr. Key was as racist as racist comes.
He believed blacks were “a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community.”
Land of the free, indeed.
But you know, that's history, so why dwell?