Front cover image for What so proudly we hailed : Francis Scott Key, a life

What so proudly we hailed : Francis Scott Key, a life

"Francis Scott Key is enshrined in America?s iconography as a paragon of patriotism on par with Betsy Ross, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere, and John Hancock - individuals who hold exalted places in early American history for performing one memorable act. For Francis Scott Key, that immortal moment was writing "The Star-Spangled Banner" under the most dramatic (and unlikely) of circumstances: while witnessing the all-night Battle of Baltimore onboard a British ship in that city?s harbor. In What So Proudly We Hailed, historian Marc Leepson reveals Francis Scott Key as a man of his time, full of contradictions, as a slave owner who fought slave trafficking and defended slaves for free. An influential confidant and advisor to Andrew Jackson and a close friend of Senator John Randolph, Key?s home in Georgetown was a frequent gathering point for the intellectual heavyweights of the day. He was a leader of the American Colonization Society, a national movement that worked to send freed slaves back to Africa - a movement that led to the creation of the West African nation of Liberia. The first full-length biography of Francis Scott Key in more than 75 years, this is a fascinating story of a forgotten American patriot that makes plain his important legacy."--Publisher's website
Print Book, English, 2014
First edition View all formats and editions
Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2014
Poetry
xiii, 234 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
9781137278289, 1137278285
860395373
A family of lawyers
Annapolis, Frederick Town, and George Town
Nil desperandum
Piety and patriotism
A citizen of the highest respectability
A beautiful and animating effusion
A useless, pernicious, dangerous portion of the population
A class of very dangerous people
A stormy tumult of feeling
A vigorous and well cultivated intellect
A friend of peace
A particular friend of the president
A rank Jackson man
The prosecutor
U.S. Minister to Alabama
An incorruptible patriot
An alarming state of disorder
A friend of men of color
Epilogue: one of the best men that ever lived