Disturbing Line In The National Anthem I wished I Didn't Know About:

The title seemed some what cowardly as if not wanting to face some inconvenient truth about our past, for me it's a personal thing , looking back over a military career where everyone stood at attention as the world literally stopped on Military bases during the raising and lowering of the flag, in or out of uniform made no difference, and as much as I claimed to be a history buff, somethings I just missed or never bothered to looking into , the origin or who wrote it.

Now with all the controversy over Kaepernick and his refusal to stand or take a knee, it had been bought to light the culled line of that anthem, and while I didn't know who wrote it or that he was a Slave owner , I'd leave it like that as a sign of the times, but the dude who wrote it wasn't just merely a slave owner he was , white supremacist, as slave owning is not necessarily the same thing although they can cross over, he was also a patriot, but here is the thing , some blacks were also patriots , although some quite logically went over to the Brits who offered them freedom.

The line goes like this:

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.
theintercept.com...

The link goes on to explain more including detractors who said differently but one thing is certain he was hostile to Blacks slave or free.
About my own feeling on the matter where I once proudly saluted , I'd be lying if I said I don't cringe when I heard it today even with the cleaned up version..which leads back to the title, somethings I wished I didn't know..

Mmmm....

The Star Spangled Banner lyrics "...and slave" is a direct reference to the British practice of Impressment (kidnapping American seamen and forcing them into service on British man-of war ships). This was a Important cause of the War of 1812

So how do you feel now?





m.american-historama.org...

a reply to: thinline

What a thin little excuse that is.

Look: patriotism and xenophobia are essentially the same attitude in different clothes. All national anthems are racist, even the ones that sound innocuous. People sing them while they march off to kill other races.

originally posted by: Astyanax
a reply to: thinline

What a thin little excuse that is.

Look: patriotism and xenophobia are essentially the same attitude in different clothes. All national anthems are racist, even the ones that sound innocuous. People sing them while they march off to kill other races.

Nonsense. Liking one country does not equal hating another, just like preferring strawberry does not mean hating vanilla.

a reply to: thinline

I don't think many people realize that the Star Spangled Banner was written in 1814 about a battle during the war of 1812.

Everyone assumes it was written during a Revolutionary War battle.

Also, your truth telling doesn't fit the agenda, so you're a racist.

There is a Difference Between "Patriotism" and "Nationalism" that crosses over at times. and many times Racism and Bigotry get masked by "Patriotism" and or "Nationalism"

Also, if you didn't know about I suggest looking up "The Bellamy salute"


One last thing to think about, What about all the Minority Soldiers that fought in Wars only to come back to America and face Discrimination "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave" so who was that Anthem for then?

a reply to: Astyanax

No National Anthems are Nationalistic NOT racist there's a difference

a reply to: Spider879

Considering what the mindset toward colored people was back those days it should be no surprise to you.....whats sad is that hundreds of years later the same mindset exists even if it has to be a little more covert than it did back then ...

a reply to: Astyanax

Yep, even the mightiest nations tremble when they hear the dreadful sound of "Oh Canada" chanted by the vicious warriors of the north.

originally posted by: thinline
Mmmm....

The Star Spangled Banner lyrics "...and slave" is a direct reference to the British practice of Impressment (kidnapping American seamen and forcing them into service on British man-of war ships). This was a Important cause of the War of 1812

So how do you feel now?





m.american-historama.org...

I suggest reading the link that was also covered.

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

What is sad to me is that the word "slave" used in The Star Spangled Banner has nothing at all to do with race but some people keep trying so hard to make it seem like it does.

But hey, anything to cause more division, right?

Except , in the OFFICIAL US version , some parts are not recognized. Does anyone sing those parts ? No. Has anyone ever sung those parts ? I doubt it

a reply to: abe froman

Is there anything we are fed these days that is not causing division....?...hell almost every-time violence occurs by a black man the hordes label it blm...we seem to live in a perpetual world of hate,bigotry and racism....

What is the meaning of slave in the anthem ?....I assumed it was a reference to colored people .....

originally posted by: abe froman
a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

What is sad to me is that the word "slave" used in The Star Spangled Banner has nothing at all to do with race but some people keep trying so hard to make it seem like it does.

But hey, anything to cause more division, right?

Abe I am not here to cause division believe me this pains me but it is what it is.

By the mid-1800s, the phrase “hireling and slave” could be found in the writing of slavery’s supporters to differentiate between wage laborers and those in actual bondage. Whether this usage was adopted from “The Star-Spangled Banner” or the other way around is unclear, but William Grayson, a U.S. representative from South Carolina, even titled a famed 1855 pro-slavery poem “The Hireling and the Slave.” Grayson contended that slavery had been a “blessing” for Africans and was morally superior to a system of wage work. Grayson also described whites using a new term he had coined: a “master race.”
theintercept.com...
[/ex]

a reply to: Skyfloating

Nonsense. Liking one country does not equal hating another

Fiddlesticks, Pollyana.

Patriotism is, as Dr Johnson said, the last refuge of the scoundrel. It is a character fault promulgated as a virtue.

abe froman @ thinline
your truth telling doesn't fit the agenda, so you're a racist.

It’s not truth-telling, it’s a revisionist political fabrication.

A well-established secondary meaning of the word ‘slave’, going back to Shakespeare at least, is ‘evil person’. Remember Hamlet? ‘O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!’ Was the Prince of Denmark calling himself a chattel?

In fact, the word ‘villain’ originally meant ‘indentured labourer’, someone who is only technically distinct from a slave.

That’s what ‘slave’ means in the US national anthem: wicked person. The word doesn’t make the national anthem racist. Being a national anthem makes it racist.

Phyllida Davenport
No National Anthems are Nationalistic NOT racist there's a difference

Consult a dictionary on the meanings of (1) nationalism and (2) racism, then come back here and explain the difference.

*

Above Top Secret. Where I often end up arguing with people who can barely tie their own shoelaces. For fun. Cripes, I must be mad.

a reply to: Astyanax

Someone could make money out of class in an American UNI on how to tie shoelaces correctly....just in case you had an entrepreneurial side to you

originally posted by: Gothmog
Except , in the OFFICIAL US version , some parts are not recognized. Does anyone sing those parts ? No. Has anyone ever sung those parts ? I doubt it

As I stated it was culled and until recently and I mean like a wk or so ago I didn't even knew there was such a line, but that does take me into the mind of the composer, knowing what it is now, should I just pretend that it wasn't there in the first place , there are somethings you can't un-know.

a reply to: Spider879
"Hireling and slave" = soldier in opposing army. That's why they are being threatened with death.
Hireling- I'm not sure if the British government was still in the habit of hiring German mercenaries. They would be paid soldiers, anyway, wherever they came from, not volunteers fighting to defend their homes. And not being under a "free" government would be enough to make them slaves.

a reply to: Skyfloating

That is utter nonsense.

America is not a race, it is a nationality composed of races and ethnicities.

Every war America has been involved in has included people from the countries we fought fighting on our side.

During the Indian wars we had Indians fighting on America's side along with soldiers from a multitide of other races and ethnicities.

During the spanish american war we had spanish and Filipino soldiers on our side.

During the world wars there were german americans on our side, etc.

You ignorant racist claims just don't hold water.

a reply to: Deny Arrogance

I am not Skyfloating. The loops go left over right, right over left.