Francis Scott Key, Class of 1796 and founder of the Alumni Association, is St. John’s College’s most famous—and perhaps most controversial—graduate.

Join us in Francis Scott Key Auditorium (live and via YouTube) on Wednesday, April 17, for a lively panel discussion with notable Key scholars and historians on this complicated Johnnie and his legacy.

Viewed from today, his life seems to be a series of contradictions.

• A devout Episcopalian, he intended to become a priest, but then became a lawyer to support his family.
• As a nationally recognized attorney, he appeared several times before the Supreme Court, arguing successfully in 1808 that the African men aboard the seized slave ship Antelope were free and should be returned to Africa. Twenty-five years later as District Attorney, he unsuccessfully prosecuted abolitionist Ruben Crandall for distributing anti-slavery tracts that led to a murder attempt.
• He represented enslaved Black people pro bono in suits seeking their freedom, and also worked for slave owners defending against such suits. He owned slaves himself, freeing some while purchasing others.
• He wrote a poem that became the national anthem, yet while the lyrics speak evocatively of the nation’s struggle for freedom, the third verse ambiguously mentions slaves, leading to conflicting theories about what he meant.
• Convinced that white Americans were too racist to ever accept Black Americans as equals and led by his faith, he was one of the founders of the American Colonization Society which sought to end slavery by “returning” Black Americans to Africa.
• He was among a group that founded a free public school for poor white children in Washington, D.C. and insisted that it provide classes for Black children in the evenings.
• Regarded at the end of his life as a fervent anti-abolitionist, six months before his death he was one of few white men who attended the funeral of a leader of Washington’s free Black community, leading an abolitionist newspaper to describe him as “a friend of men of color.”

Panelists:

• Prof. Mark Clague, author of the 2022 cultural biography of the Star-Spangled Banner, O Say Can You Hear?
• Marc Leepson, author of the 2014 Francis Scott Key biography What So Proudly We Hailed
• Prof. William Thomas, author of the 2020 history of freedom suits, A Question of Freedom
• Moderated by Chanel Compton, Executive Director of the Banneker-Douglass Museum

This discussion is organized by the College History Task Force which has received grants from the State of Maryland and the France-Merrick Foundation to research and publish reports on the men for whom the Annapolis campus buildings are named. This panel will supplement the written report on Key, and will provide audience members with the opportunity to question the panelists on areas where they desire further detail.

Questions for the panelists may be submitted in advance or during the panel to chtf@sjc.edu.

YouTube Link: The Legacy of Francis Scott Key, Class of 1796 (youtube.com)