Like so many famous songs of yore, "The Star-Spangled Banner" started as a poem ... He’s talking about white people. If you were an enslaved person, you’re not inclined to think “freemen ...

But his collection of fragments from the Star-Spangled Banner—one red swatch, one white—made him feel less like a have than a have-not. A friend possessed a blue scrap, and, without one for ...