In 1814, while this lawyer & poet was helping to free his friend William Beanes, he saw the bombing of Fort McHenry
.... Free blacks established themselves in the Baltimore area and .... Beanes 
and Key had witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry from onboard the... [DOC] [TLE] A National Anthem Is Born | American Federation of Teachers [PAR] The war saw American troops decisively defeated by the British at the Battle of ... 
Key, a lawyer and amateur poet, watched the battle from a British boat where he 
was ... dawn revealed the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry, and he 
knew that ....