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The Slaves of Francis Scott Key

The 15th Anniversary of 9/11 was just upon us a few days ago. The last time our national territory was attacked was in the War of 1812. [The War of 1812 was a longer war than the US involvement in World War 1, the Spanish-American War & the Mexican-American War.] Some may wonder, "but what about the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941?". Hawaii wasn't an American state at the time. Hawaii at the time was a colony that we had occupied, and where we put our military bases, but it wasn't a state, nor our national territory. It was a colony. Hawaii wouldn't become a state until August 21, 1959, nearly 18 years after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. In the War of 1812, the British burned down the White House, the President's house, Congress, the Library of Congress, and really, all of Washington DC. The War of 1812 cost the United States $200 million, and 15,000 white Americans were killed in the War of 1812, which is 5 times the amount of Americans that died on 9/11. About 4,000 to 5,000 humans were killed on the "other" side, mostly native Americans. James "Lil Jimmy" Madison, the architect of the US Constitution, wanted war with Britain, for mostly imperialistic reasons: to steal Canadian land, and to kill native Americans out west, and to steal their land too. 

The English was fighting a war against Napoleon's France. When American merchant ships traded with Napoleon's France, the English saw this as an aggressive act on the part of the Americans, and would take over their ships, and impress their sailors into military service. The impressment of American troops would be used as an excuse to start the war, but early in the war, the British had offered peace terms to the US, and offered to stop the impressment of American sailors, but Lil Jimmy Madison rejects these terms. Even the Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Day in 1814, which wouldn't be ratified until several months later, didn't mention the impressment of American sailors. The impressment of American sailors wasn't considered important for the Treaty of Ghent to be signed, which set everything back to the way it was before the war: Status Quo Ante Bellum. The border between the US and Canada was more ingrained, British-US relations were the same, nothing had changed: Status Quo Ante Bellum, which means in Latin, "how things were before the war". The biggest winner of the War of 1812 were the Canadians, for Canadians remember the War of 1812 as when they whipped American ass, and became Canada, became themselves. The biggest loser of the War of 1812 were the native Americans. For Tecumseh, it was a net loss. Nothing was gained for the Saux, Fox, Mauscoutens, Ho-chunks (racistly called the Winnebago), Shawnee (Tecumseh), Miami, Creek Red Sticks, Ojibwe, Iroquois, Mingo, Ottawa, Kickapoo, Lenape/Delaware, Potawatomis, Ho-Chunks  & the Wyandots. After the War of 1812, the British didn't back the native Americans up anymore, nor did they push for a native American state to be formed on their behalf. The native Americans were used and abused by the British and the Americans, and in exchange for their services, they received nothing. 

The United States didn't gain anything either. While the War of 1812 was called a "stalemate", so therefore, a "tie", because the US spent $200 million, and the war killed 15,000 people, 5 times the number that was killed on 9/11. 



The only decent thing that came out of the War of 1812, the unnecessary War of 1812, which we largely lost--status quo ante bellum--was the Star-Spangled Banner, an 1814 poem written by a 4th generation slave owner named Francis Scott Key, after the siege of Baltimore was a bust. Ironically, the Star-Spangled Banner was written over a 1775 English aristocratic drinking melody of "To Anacreon in Heaven" even though the United States was being bombed by the English. 

Ol Frank Key was actually a 4th generation slave owner. Francis Scott Key's great grandfather, who was also named Francis Key (no Scott?), owned slaves. Francis Key birthed Francis Key birthed John Ross Key birthed Francis Scott Key, and the Terra Rubra plantation in Maryland was passed on down the line.  That's 4 generations of Keys owning slaves. While many of the Amerika's forefathers owned slaves, such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Jay & Patrick Henry (Benjamin Franklin & John Jay would later on actively fight against slavery), many others did not, which should make them more heroic. Many folks forgive the forefathers for being "products of their times", but by doing that, we ignore the heroism of those who didn't own human beings, who didn't use & abuse Black folks to extract & exploit their labor, in order to amass their own personal private wealth.

John & Abigail Adams & Samuel Adams & Oliver Ellsworth &  Robert Treat Paine & Thomas Paine & Roger Sherman & Alexander Hamilton were all abolitionists. None of them owned slaves & none of them believed in the institution of slavery. Alexander Hamilton grew up in the Caribbean islands (Nevis & St. Croix) where many sugar plantations existed, and perhaps seeing slavery up close and personal is one of hte reasons he was so much against it. Alexander Hamilton was in favor of John Laurens plan to equip former African-American slaves with weapons to fight for the cause of the American Revolution. 

Plus, the entire state of Pennsylvania had abolished slavery by 1800. Slavery wasn't inevitable, nor was it "just a product of their times", since many folks in those same exact times were against it. Plus, the schism between slavers and abolitionists would lead to a major Civil War in less than the first 100 years of Amerika's birth. 

Francis Scott Key was born into a 4th generation slave-owning family. His wife Polly actually came from the biggest slave owning family in Maryland. 

When Francis "Frank" Scott Key was 21 years old, he bought himself his first Black slave to own, control, and take their labor for himself. Ol Frank Key bought & sold human beings like they were cattle. In 1800, ol Frank Key turned 21 years old, and in order to celebrate his 21st birthday, Key bought himself a slave, an African-American slave, and owned another person. 

One of Francis Scott Key's slaves was named Clem Johnson. Eventually, Clem would be freed, but for many years, ol Frank Key kept Clem around as one of his own slaves. Clem Johnson was Francis Scott Key's main head Negro; like Samuel L. Jackson's character in "Django", Clem Johnson was ol Frank Key's main overseer of all the other African-American slaves. 

"Assistant Estate Manager" was Clem Johnson's official title when he worked at FSK's Terra Rubra plantation. Even after Clem Johnson was "freed", he continued to work for Francis Scott Key. In Sampson S. King's office, FSK let 45 year old "Uncle Clem" go. Uncle Clem was free to go. And in his freedom, Uncle Clem remained a servant of Key's, only this time, it was of Uncle Clem's own choosing (plus I'm sure the probable conditioning & brain-washing his entire life to be an uncle tom house negro had an effect too). 

On his Freedom Day, Clem Johnson wept, and Clem said that he did not care to have the papers and was unwilling to leave the service of Mr. Key. Francis Scott Key told Uncle Clem that he could have a home in Key's house until he died. 

But Key's other slaves stayed in bondage, and Clem became their overseer. 

And Polly, Key's wife, just like GW's wife, Martha & just like William Thornton's wife, Anna Maria Brodeau Thornton, never even once considered freeing her slaves. "Get rid of having all of this free labor?!? Are you kidding me?!?" 

John Arthur Bowen should have been a free man, but Anna Maria Brodeau Thornton didn't want him to be. Then one day, John Arthur Bowen had an ax in his hands, and he showed up at Anna Maria Brodeau Thornton's room late one night...

That was in 1835, and the Snow White Race Riot of 1835 happened in Washington DC after that. In 1835 alone, the US's 25 states experienced no less than 53 riots, virtually all related to issues of race. Most involved mobs of white men attacking free blacks and white anti-slavery speakers. 

By 1837, there were 1,000 race riots in the United States.

A Black man "Governor" Philip Toyer of Peach Orchard bought his wife from Francis Scott Key for $1. Philip Toyer would walk across fields in order to help Uncle Clem, Key's free black steward, do chores around Francis Scott Key's mansion. 

Francis Scott Key liked having so many friendly uncle tom black folks working for him, and his nostalgia made him want to restore Terra Rubra as a permanent county seat. Francis Scott Key got a white farmer to live in a wing of his Terra Rubra's house, with Uncle Clem as his assistant. 

Uncle Clem Johnson remained in the employ of the Key family and relieved aging Mrs. John Ross Key of all the petty details of household management. Clem ran the kitchen like a martinet, was custodian of the recipes, superintendent of the kitchen garden, boss of the field hands. As an executive he was responsible only to Mr. Landis, chief fanner of the estate on Pipe Creek, and later to a farmer named Angel. Imitating his master, Clem Johnson often conducted the evening prayers in the Terra Rubra quarters. Key's mother looked forward to Francis Scott Key's visits to Terra Rubra no more eagerly than Uncle Clem did. And in the summer when the Taneys came up from Baltimore and the Keys came up from Georgetown, tending to the chores of the household, Uncle Clem was never known to complain. He was very fond of Taney's man Madison. 

In 1820, Francis Scott Key owned 6 people. 

FSK freed 4 of his 7 slaves after Nat Turner's rebellion. Mostly in the 1830s, Key manumitted (set free) seven slaves, one of whom (Clem Johnson) continued to work for him for wages as his farm's foreman, supervising several slaves. 

Key gave Elizabeth Hicks her freedom, but not for reasons you'd think. Elizabeth Hicks was old. Elizabeth Hicks was 65 years old. Francis Scott Key himself would only live to be 63 years old. Also, Elizabeth Hicks had lost one of her front teeth, so she was a ghastly sight. Elizabeth Hicks was a dark mulatto, 5'8" tall. 

Romeo was allowed to go free too, but for $300 (who paid? where did the money come from?). Romeo was freed in his mid-twenties, after he spent 2 decades literally slaving away for FSK. 

William Lloyd Garrison, a badass white abolitionist, characterized the American Colonization Society, which FSK helped to cofound, as existing solely because slave owners wanted to ship free blacks to Liberia so they couldn't stir up the docile slaves with their crazy notions about freedom. Ship 'em back to Africa. Key was a founder of Liberia. 

The Star Spangled War of 1812 is the war that produced the Star Spangled Banner, the only decent thing that came out of that stalemated war, which killed 15,000 white Americans & cost $200 Million. The Star Spangled War also killed Tecumseh & the Shawnee, Miami, Creek Red Sticks, Ojibwe, Fox, Iroquois, Mingo, Ottawa, Kickapoo, Lenape/Delaware, Mascoutens, Potawatomis, Sauks, Ho-Chunks (racistly called the Winnebago) & the Wyandots. The Star Spangled Banner isn't just an 1814 poem about blind nationalistic jingoistic love for a failed imperialist war, a war that killed scores of native American tribes, but it's also a love for the Black Marines who dared to defy the institution of slavery in the US, and join the British in order to try to achieve their freedom. 

Read the 3rd stanza. The 3rd Stanza is about how gleeful Francis Scott Key was over the slaughter of the British Black Marines... Ol Frank Key was a slave owner, and just the notion that those "inferior" people (his words, not mine) would run to the British, and shoot back, infuriated him. Francis Scott Key also tried to put a white abolitionist named Dr. Reuben Crandall to death for owning abolitionist pamphlets in the privacy of his own home. So if you're not able to empathize with a Black man being fucked over, but reading about how a white man got fucked over will help you out with your empathy skills. 

Francis Scott Key got Dr. Reuben Crandall killed in the aftermath of the Snow White Race Riots of 1835. OI Frank Key pushed for the death penalty of Dr. Reuben Crandall, and while the jury acquited Dr. Reuben Crandall of any wrongdoing, Dr. Reuben Crandall contacted Tuberculous while he was in jail (which he was in for nearly a year), and he would die shortly thereafter in the Caribbean, trying to search for a cure. 

What was Dr. Reuben Crandall's crime? His personal beliefs & owning newspapers. Reuben Crandall was a white abolitionist and he was killed for having abolitionist pamphlets in his own house, in a trunk. In that trunk, some Constables (slave catchers) of ol Frank Key's, found some newspaper articles and/or pamphlets that called for the abolition of slavery, and that's it. That's the the reason Francis Scott Key put Dr. Reuben Crandall in jail, which eventually led to his death. 

It is now 2016, 202 years after Key wrote the Star-Spangled Banner. The poem itself was written as an anti-British imperialist ballard, but it was overlayed onto a British melody. The poem itself also supports racism & slavery, being gleeful over the slaughter of the British Black Marines, and it's imperialistic itself, being that it celebrated the War of 1812, which was the attempted takeover of Canada, and of course, the wholesale slaughter of the Saux, Fox, Mauscoutens, Ho-chunks (racistly called the Winnebago), Shawnee (Tecumseh), Miami, Creek Red Sticks, Ojibwe, Iroquois, Mingo, Ottawa, Kickapoo, Lenape/Delaware, Potawatomis, Ho-Chunks  & the Wyandots. 

Francis Scott Key was a slave owner himself, his prosecutorial actions put to death Dr. Reuben Crandall, a white abolitionist, merely for the owning of abolitionist pamphlets in the privacy of his own home, tucked safetly out of the way in a trunk in his home. Since the National Anthem was written by a slave-owner, who killed a white abolitionist, it's origins are despicable. 

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