PJ The Belt - July 04, 2026


Canadian REACTS to Emotional Star Spangled Banner As You've Never Heard It


Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

142.76

Word count

1,731

Sentence count

48

Harmful content

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

On this day in 1812, a man named Francis Scott Key negotiated a deal with the British to release American prisoners held captive in the aftermath of the War of 1812. The deal was for prisoners to be exchanged on a one-for-one basis.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
00:00:00.000 Well, hello America! Happy 250th birthday. Look at you all grown up. 250 years. 250 glorious years of defying odds.
00:00:13.140 I mean, you literally started as a country by fighting the most powerful empire the world had ever seen at the time.
00:00:21.760 the British Empire. Just a bunch of regular men with big hearts, brave hearts, who are tired
00:00:31.100 of taxation without representation. Your fight has inspired millions of people and you created
00:00:40.760 the most powerful, most influential, most significant civilization the world has ever
00:00:47.680 seen. From putting men on the moon to inventing pretty much everything from the light bulb to
00:00:54.880 vehicles to the airplane to everything else. Americans should be proud. Americans better be
00:01:02.860 proud of their country because there's no other country like it. I'm sure some of you have already
00:01:07.560 watched this video before but I think it's important to revisit it especially given the
00:01:11.880 fact that the United States is celebrating its 250th birthday. Just to look at the sacrifices
00:01:17.280 that American patriots had to go through to secure the freedoms that Americans and much
00:01:23.580 of the Western world enjoy today. This video is based on the events that took place in 1812,
00:01:31.680 the War of 1812 between the United States and British forces. Let's watch.
00:01:47.280 that i'm sure you're aware of you've seen it it's in most hymnals throughout our churches it's called
00:01:51.360 the national anthem it is our song as an american stand in our church services and we sing the words
00:01:57.760 of that song and they float over our minds and our lips and we don't even realize what we're
00:02:01.920 singing most of us have memorized it as a child but we've never really thought about what it means
00:02:06.640 let me tell you a story francis scott key was a lawyer in baltimore the colonies were engaged in
00:02:14.880 vicious conflict with the mother country britain that's when uh the british british army based out
00:02:22.580 of canada british north america at the time because canada didn't exist as a country until
00:02:26.920 1867 so it was called british north america british forces actually burnt the white house
00:02:32.560 at that time the war of 1812 because of this conflict and the protractedness of it they had
00:02:38.040 accumulated prisoners on both sides the american colonies had prisoners and the british had
00:02:42.500 prisoners. And the American government initiated a move. They went to the British and they
00:02:46.820 said, let us negotiate for the release of these prisoners. They said, we want to send
00:02:53.360 a man out to discuss this with you. They were holding the American prisoners in boats about
00:02:58.080 a thousand yards offshore. And they said, we want to send a man by the name of Francis
00:03:02.580 Scott Key. He will come out and negotiate to see if we can make a mutual exchange. On
00:03:08.580 the appointed day in a rowboat, he went out to this boat and he negotiated with the British
00:03:12.260 officials and they reached a conclusion that men could be exchanged on a one-for-one basis
00:03:17.780 so i suppose francis scott key was like the diplomat like the mediator in this particular
00:03:23.760 conflict francis scott key jubilant with the fact that he'd been successful went down below
00:03:29.480 in the boats and what he found was a cargo hold full of humanity men and he said men i've got
00:03:36.260 news for you tonight you're free he said tonight i have negotiated successfully your return to the
00:03:43.540 colonies he said you'll be taken out of this boat out of this spilt out of your chains
00:03:49.460 as he went back up on board to arrange for their passage to the shore the admiral came
00:03:53.140 and he said we have a slight problem he said we will still honor our commitment to release
00:03:58.500 these men but it'll be merely academic after tonight it won't matter oh boy and francis
00:04:05.140 Scott Key said what do you mean he said well Mr. Key he said tonight we have laid an ultimatum
00:04:13.380 upon the colonies your people will either capitulate and lay down the colors of that flag
00:04:20.100 that you think so much of or you see that fort right over there Fort Henry he said we're going
00:04:25.860 to remove it from the face of the earth oh boy he said how are you going to do that he said if you
00:04:32.340 will scan the horizon of the sea and as he looked he could see hundreds of little dots
00:04:39.380 and he said that's the entire british war fleet you gotta remember that at the time the united
00:04:45.540 states wasn't the most powerful navy or the most powerful military in the world they were not in
00:04:50.820 1812 the united states was less than 50 years old as a country so it was it was still developing as
00:04:57.860 a country in the world the british were literally the most powerful empire at the time which goes
00:05:04.740 to show just how crazy the 1776 revolution was the fact that the united states was able to withstand
00:05:11.540 and not only withstand defeat the british forces all of the gun power all of the armament is being
00:05:17.780 called upon to demolish that fort it will be here within striking distance in a matter of about two
00:05:24.020 and a half hours he said the war is over these men would be free anyway yikes he said you can't
00:05:30.260 show that for it he said that's that's a large fort he said it's full of women and children
00:05:36.580 he says it's predominantly not a military fort he said don't worry about it they said we've left
00:05:44.580 them a way out he said what's that he said do you see that flag way up on the rampart
00:05:50.420 he said we have told them that if they will lower that flag the shelling will stop immediately
00:05:57.980 lower the flag and we'll know that they've surrendered and you'll now be under british
00:06:03.380 rule francis scott key went down below and told the men what was about to happen
00:06:10.700 and they said how many ships he said hundreds
00:06:14.720 hundreds the ships got closer francisco he went back up on top and he said men i'll shout down
00:06:21.040 to you what's going on as we watch as twilight began to fall and as the haze hung over the ocean
00:06:29.180 as it does at sunset suddenly the british war fleet unleashed imagine that picture hundreds
00:06:37.220 and hundreds of ships threatening to destroy the fort that was full of women and kids
00:06:44.840 just so that you put the flag down just so that they lowered that flag that was their demand
00:06:52.160 lower the flag the american flag and they refused how many people have that courage today how many
00:07:01.380 people would have that bravery, that heart, to love the flag that much. That's why there are
00:07:09.300 people out there who just can't stand to see individuals disrespecting the American flag,
00:07:16.860 stepping on it, burning it, not standing for the anthem, etc.
00:07:23.600 He says the sound was deafening. There were so many guns that there were no reliefs. He said it
00:07:29.260 it was absolutely impossible to talk or hear he said suddenly the sky although dark was suddenly
00:07:33.640 lit imagine that and he says from down below all he could hear the men the prisoners saying was
00:07:39.300 tell us where the flag is what have they done with the flag
00:07:44.920 is the flag still flying over the rampart tell us
00:07:49.900 one hour two hours three hours into the shelling
00:07:55.300 every time the bomb would explode and it would be close to the flag
00:08:01.240 they could see the flag and the illuminated red glare of that bomb
00:08:05.140 and francis scott key would report down to the men below it's still up
00:08:08.940 the rocket's red glare it's not down 0.86
00:08:11.500 the admiral came and he said your people are insane he said what's the matter with them
00:08:19.220 brave he said don't they understand this is an impossible situation
00:08:23.800 francis scott key said he remembered what george washington had said he said the thing that sets
00:08:30.280 the american christian apart from all other people in the world is he will die on his feet before
00:08:36.520 he'll live on his knees the admiral said we have now instructed all of the guns to focus on the
00:08:46.280 rampart to take that flag down they're going for it he said we don't understand something
00:08:50.700 our reconnaissance tells us that that flag has been hit directly again and again and again and
00:08:56.200 yet it's still flying we don't understand that but he said now we're about to bring every gun
00:09:02.800 for the next three hours to bear on that point francis scott he said the barrage was unmerciful
00:09:07.940 Wow.
00:09:37.940 completely nondescript in shreds the flag was flying hold itself was at a crazy angle
00:09:44.620 the flag was still at the top francis scott key went aboard and immediately went into fort henry
00:09:54.440 to see what had happened and what he found had happened was that that flagpole and that flag
00:10:02.080 had suffered repetitious direct hits, and when hit had fallen. But men, fathers, who
00:10:14.080 knew what it meant for that flag to be on the ground, although knowing that all of the
00:10:21.780 British guns were trained on it, walked over and held it up humanly until they died.
00:10:29.720 The ultimate sacrifice for the flag.
00:10:32.160 Their bodies were removed and others took their place.
00:10:36.800 Francis Scott Key said what held that flagpole in place at that unusual angle were Patriots' bodies.
00:10:44.120 Wow.
00:10:45.840 He penned the song,
00:10:48.560 Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light
00:10:52.280 what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming.
00:10:59.720 Or the rocket's red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night
00:11:07.060 That the flag was still there
00:11:12.380 Incredible. Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave or the land of the free
00:11:20.160 and the home of the brave.
00:11:23.780 Brave indeed.
00:11:24.980 The debt was demanded.
00:11:27.640 The price, it was paid.
00:11:31.560 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.
00:11:35.460 Amen.
00:11:36.500 Again, that anthem, the Star Spangled Banner,
00:11:38.920 tells the story.
00:11:40.900 It's one of those anthems that tells the story.
00:11:44.460 It's not just about words that sound good put together
00:11:48.780 or good sounding music, it's a story of a battle and a perseverance, a legendary perseverance
00:11:57.200 against all odds. Americans should be proud. You guys should be very proud. Happy 250th birthday,
00:12:04.940 America, to 250 more.