This is a reference to the British hiring mercenaries and paying slaves to fight the Americans. What's racist about that?
Essentially, says writer and academic Jason Johnson, Francis Scott Key was happy to see former slaves, who had joined the British as part of their Colonial Marines, getting slaughtered and killed as they attempted to take Baltimore.
The entire song sort of leads up to this point, Johnson adds, where hes essentially saying to these terrible, ungrateful, black people, this is the consequence of standing up against the United States.
So its clearly racist; its clearly pro-slavery, but its pretty much in line with the kind of man that Francis Scott Key was.
Key was a typical white Marylander of his time, and he favored slavery.
Many historians agree with Johnson, but some disagree. They point out that Key never told anyone what he actually meant, and some historians interpret his mention of hirelings and slaves to reference all of the invading British forces.
They say it echoes similar rhetoric used since the Revolutionary War to describe the forces of the king of England, especially those units purchased from German princes. American writers contrasted these miserable hirelings and slaves with the virtuous all-volunteer citizen armies of America.
However, Johnson counters that argument. He points out that Key himself faced the black Colonial Marines in battle. His unit was beaten and humiliated by them.
His troops were slaughtered so aggressively, Johnson says, that he had to run home and hide in Washington DC. ... So this was personal for him."
At best, historians disagree whether the anthem was racist or not. But there's a very good argument that it is. ---
