Francis Scott Key Biographical Essay Example

During the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key became a lawyer and observed the British attack on Fort McHenry (Biography.com). The main cause of the war was when Britain started kidnapping U.S. seamen and there was a lot of disruption of trade with France (Biography.com). Due to Key’s religious views he was against the war and believed that the problems could be resolved without fighting, even though he served briefly with Georgetown Field Artillery (Biography.com). Dr. William Beanes was captured when the British took over Washington D.C in 1814. He was a colleague of Key’s, so he was asked to help defend Beanes in court, so he could be released (Biography.com). Colonel John Skinner and Francis Scott Key secured Beanes’ freedom in court, although they were not allowed to go on land until the British completed their Fort McHenry attack (Biography.com).

While floating on the sea, the three men watched the whole attack on Fort McHenry (Biography.com). There was continual bombing all day, but the British were not able to take down the fort (Biography.com). After the bombing, Key wrote down the words for a poem that he had made, and he continued to work on it after getting onto land (Biography.com). The poem consisted mainly of things that he had witnessed on the boat, including him seeing a large United States flag being flown the morning after the attack, saying “Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there-”(Verse 1). The poem would later be known as the “Defence of Fort M’Henry”, which was printed in handbills and newspapers (Biography.com). The words to the poem were put into John Stafford Smith’s tune “To Anacreon in Heaven”, which would later be called “The Star-Spangled Banner” (Biography.com).

Key had a very complicated connection with slavery (nps.gov). He defended all enslaved people and fought for their freedom as an attorney (nps.gov). He believed that all men are free and that not everyone presumes that all Black men and Africans are slaves (nps.gov). Although Key fought for their freedom, by 1820 he had owned six slaves himself (nps.gov). Key freed several enslaved individuals, most of whom were of an older age, so Key believed that people may not profit off of them because they could not work as hard as some of the younger slaves (nps.gov). Key signed up to help free the lives of two little boys, John and Joe, who were only two and a half years old (nps.gov). Once he reached court, he was informed that the two boys could not be set free until they were 25 years old (nps.gov).

Key fell sick with pleurisy, a disease where the outer layer of the lungs becomes inflamed, when he was 63, and died on January 11, 1843 in Baltimore, Maryland (Biography.com). After his death, “The Star Spangled Banner” continued to be called a musical symbol of the United States (Biography.com). The song did face some critiques, some saying that the lyrics were violent and very complex (Biography.com). Much later, in 1916, the president at the time, Woodrow Wilson, proclaimed that the song should be played at official events (Biography.com). 15 years later, President Herbert Hoover and the Congress declared “The Star Spangled Banner” as the United States national anthem (Biography.com).

Works Cited

“Francis Scott Key.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 23 Apr. 2021, https://www.biography.com/writer/francis-scott-key.

“Francis Scott Key.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/fomc/learn/historyculture/francis-scott-key.htm. 

Key, Francis Scott. “Defence of Fort M’Henry Poem.” Sep. 14 1814, Baltimore, Maryland