Francis Scott Key

Francis Scott Key

Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779 - January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer and poet. He is best known for writing a poem which later became the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States of America.

His mother was Ann Phoebe Penn Dagworthy (Charlton) and his father was Captain John Ross Key. He graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland in 1796.

Key became a leader of the American Colonization Society that created Liberia and freed a few if his own slaves. In the administration of Andrew Jackson he was the United States Attorney in Washington, D.C.

Francis Scott Key Media

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  Mary Tayloe Lloyd, early 1800s

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  Coat of arms borne by Key's uncle Philip Barton Key

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  Maryland Historical Society plaque marking Key's birthplace

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  Fort McHenry looking towards the position of the British ships (with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the distance on the upper left)

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  Key law office on Court Street in Frederick, Maryland

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  Francis Scott Key Monument as it stood in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, until it was toppled in June 2020. The empty plinth is now surrounded by 350 black steel sculptures that honor 350 Africans kidnapped from Angola and transported across the Atlantic on slave ships.

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  Defaced Francis Scott Key Monument in Baltimore, 2017

Related pages

• List of poets from North America
• List of poets from the United States