My Country 'Tis of Thee.

Prior to the official adoption of the Star-Spangled Banner in 1931, a variety of popular patriotic songs were used as de facto national anthems, for the same sort of ceremonial pomp and circumstance surrounding the flag.

One of those was "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Good thing we didn't stick with that one, since it would make the instrumental rendition at the Olympics kind of awkward when the UK also won a medal. But at the time it was less unusual; we weren't the only ones to rip off the melody of God Save the Queen. Pre-WWI Germany did it too.

Point being, disrespecting a song like that at the time would have been seen as disrespecting the flag and a de-facto national anthem. Likely to provoke strong feelings and accusations of being unpatriotic and anti-American. A controversial thing to do, for reasons that might sound familiar.

Enter our good old friends, the Abolitionists. In the 1830s and 1840s, they developed an extensive repertoire of protest songs... and they weren't too keen on rah-rah nationalism under the circumstances.

So patriotic songs, which were among the most popular and widely-known pieces of music at the time, often got a lyrical rework to draw attention to the indefensible immorality of slavery. One of those was My Country 'Tis of Thee.

These are the lyrics written by A.G. Duncan in 1843:

My country, 'tis of thee,
Stronghold of slavery, of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Where men man’s rights deride,
From every mountainside thy deeds shall ring!

My native country, thee,
Where all men are born free, if white’s their skin;
I love thy hills and dales,
Thy mounts and pleasant vales;
But hate thy negro sales, as foulest sin.

Let wailing swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees the black man’s wrong;
Let every tongue awake;
Let bond and free partake;
Let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

Our father’s God! to thee,
Author of Liberty, to thee we sing;
Soon may our land be bright,
With holy freedom’s right,
Protect us by thy might, Great God, our King.

It comes, the joyful day,
When tyranny’s proud sway, stern as the grave,
Shall to the ground be hurl’d,
And freedom’s flag, unfurl’d,
Shall wave throughout the world, O’er every slave.

Trump of glad jubilee!
Echo o’er land and sea freedom for all.
Let the glad tidings fly,
And every tribe reply,
“Glory to God on high,” at Slavery’s fall.