by Mary Kay Reed

Created on: July 25, 2007   Last Updated: October 09, 2010

You may hear people say that the Star-Spangled Banner is an out-of-date, irrelevant work that should not be our national anthem. I think people take this stance because they don't understand the words, or the times it was written in. If we educated our students, like we used to, on the time and place it was written, we would find that lump in our throats that it has engendered since the day it was adopted.

We tend to think of our country in 1812 as a "done deal". Our Declaration of Independence, our revolutionary war and our Constitution were in place, and surely the rest of the world recognized us as an independent country, right? No so. The British had not come to that conclusion, and they now were ready to turn their attentions back to reclaiming "the Colonies". Our citizens were just getting over the effects of the Revolutionary War and getting their homes in order, hoping that their remaining sons would not have to put their lives on the line. But, they were forced to grit their teeth and push the British out once again.

So, in this context of the times, look below at what the anthem is actually saying, and why the citizens of the time thought it expressed exactly the way they had to hold their collective breath, hoping and praying that they would never be British citizens again, and the years of sacrifice wouldn't have been in vain.

Francis Scott Key and some of his fellow Americans were in a ship off the shore of Ft. McHenry, as the sun was rising, after watching a pitched battle between their troops and the British, just twenty years after the country and the flag came into being. If we lost this war, we would be just another British colony again. We had hoped the Revolutionary War settled the matter, but the British weren't quite ready to let us go. Our nation teetered in the balance.

They asked, "Hey, can anyone still see the new American flag that we were so proud of last night at sunset?

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

"The flag was flying over the walls of the fort during the battle. When the artillery and flares went off, we could still see it now and then, which proved that we still held the fort. Can anyone see if it's still flying over the fort?"

Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

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