While on the topic of "The Star Spangled Banner," it turns out that there's a verse in the original version of the song that there was a third stanza that wishes for the killing of the slaves who fought for the British because their blood would wash away their "foul footstep's pollution."
"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."
During the War of 1812, the British offered freedom to slaves if they would fight for their side. Many took up the offer. Francis Scott Key went to a British ship to lead a prisoner exchange, but because he saw too much they held him prisoner while bombarding Baltimore. Many of those who Key saw were ex-slaves who went to the other side.
During the presidency of Woodrow Wilson in 1916 he pushed for it to be the national anthem. The offending verse was removed by a committee. President Herbert Hoover made the cleaned-up version gave it official approval about fifteen years later. Stories about the original version started sprouting in 2014, then more in July 2016.
It should be pointed out that the song had verses re-written to support abolitionism too, so people were always changing it until the current version from 1931.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/...ational-anthem/http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-stand-star-spangled-banner-article-1.2770075https://theintercept.com/2016/08/28/coli...ion-of-slavery/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/arts/m...years.html?_r=0
