So I'm reading Freedom's Dominion. Great read. States that Andrew Jackson was considered soft on natives because he thought the federal government should abide by treaties and pressure the Five Civilized Tribes to sell before driving them West on the Trail of Tears. Softie. Francis Scott Key was a racial progressive for his time because while he owned humans, thought blacks racially inferior and supported versions of the fugitive slave act, he deplored freedman being kidnapped into slavery, would represent them pro bono, and hated the sight of slave markets in the Nation's capital. He was willing to travel and be inconvenienced to engage in the commerce of humans. He was considered abominable in the South for these positions.
Speaking of FS Key, author of the Star Spangled Banner, I know it will never happen, but it should be replaced as our national anthem by America the Beautiful. Besides being much harder to sing, TSSB has objectively offensive lyrics in the third verse, celebrating the death of enslaved humans that saw the British as a refuge from bondage as segue into celebrating the land of the free. 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. Compare the lyrics of America the Beautiful (1911 version) Katherine Lee Bates’ lyrics, inspired at Pike’s Peak. Consider some of its themes, sorely needed today. Not saying it’s perfect. Some Manifest Destiny themes. But still it emphasizes penitence, unity and liberty in law. O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea! O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern, impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law! O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved And mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine! O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
When we achieve our woke socialist commie paradise, the national anthem will be "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie (written as a criticism of God Bless America, a song even worse than the national anthem)
Perhaps the main theme this book explores is how effortlessly so many people can view freedom as the freedom to dominate others against their will. This is a mindset that we are currently overwhelmed by, but it has always been present in substantial form, including before an after the Civil War. It’s still hard to contemplate, but that makes it in a less common. A key passage: The freedom loving Alabamaians felt victimized and enraged. "We are a conquered people", explained Charles Carter Langdon of Mobile during the 1865 State constitutional convention. The loss of white freedom at the hands of the Union meant that "there is not a right that we can exercise but by the consent of our conquerors." Ably capturing the sense of the white majority, Langdon continued, "our streets are full of military, are simple government is provided for us without our choosing - and by the tinkling of a little bell in Washington, we may be dispersed in a moment and matched out of this Hall as the head of a file of soldiers." As he noted with contempt, "And we are here as free - as the representatives of free men. I wish I could think so. There are no free men in this other land. We are all slaves, all manacled."
Agree regarding "This Land is Your Land". Strongly disagree with your characterization of "God Bless America". The song was written by Irving Berlin (birth name Israel Beilin) a Jewish immigrant born in Russia as an homage to America. There is nothing remotely as offensive in Irving Berlin's lyrics as the indirect defense of slavery in the 3rd stanza of the Star Spangled Banner.
