On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 7:13 PM, michael perelman wrote: > We are all patriotic. Let's start with the Star Spangled Banner. > > You all are familiar with some of it, but perhaps some of you may not know > this particular stanza: Don't worry, I won't sing it: > > "No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight, or > the gloom of the grave." >
As I understand it, the reference here is to runaway slaves encouraged by the British promise of freedom during the War of 1812. I hadn't previously thought much about the "hireling" in that expression, but looking at it now, I am not convinced that it is referring to wage laborers. Note that the phrase says "the hireling and slave" NOT "the hireling and the slave". It is almost like "hireling" is used synonymously with "slave". Or am I misreading this? -raghu.
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