Francis Scott Key, the man who wrote the anthem of the United States of America, was a slaveowner with a complicated relationship with slavery. He publicly criticized cruelty to slaves. As a lawyer he represented several slaves seeking their freedom in court, and he took their cases for free. Key was also a founding member of the American Colonization Society, which aimed ease relations between blacks and whites in the United States by sending African-Americans to their own colony in Africa.
However, Key owned slaves. In fact he likely owned at least one slave when he wrote the Star-Spangled Banner. As a lawyer, Key also represented several masters seeking return of their runaway slaves. He left the American Colonization Society’s board in 1833 when it became more pro-abolition. And when Francis Scott Key became the U.S. Attorney, he used his position to suppress abolitionist publications and to prosecute abolitionists.
So in the end, despite moral qualms about the treatment of slaves, Francis Scott Key supported slavery and did what he could to maintain it.
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