It's a familiar story: Francis Scott Key on board a British ship in Baltimore Harbor in 1814, while Fort McHenry was being bombed. Key was inspired to write the "Star Spangle Banner," which later became the National Anthem, when he saw the US flag was still standing even after the bombardment.

But there's another side to Key which is explained in a book entitled "Snow-Storm in August: Washington City, Francis Scott Key and the Forgotten Race Riot of 1835" by Jefferson Morley. "The race riot in Washington was really the result of the anti-slavery movement coming to Washington and pressing for the abolition of slavery in the Nation's Capitol. And this created a backlash among pro-slavery whites who felt very threatened about the possibility of slave rebellion," says Morley.

At the time, Francis Scott Key was the US District Attorney for Washington. "He prosecuted a man named Benjamin Lundy who was a white man who had an anti-slavery newspaper. Lundy left town rather than come to trial. So he {Key} was trying to put down the anti-slavery movement."

But Morley says Key was also concerned about the breakdown of law and order in the Nation's Capitol. "The mob surrounded the jail in Judiciary Square, trying to get at a slave boy who had been arrested for attempted murder, and a white Abolitionist. And he {Key} was there defending the jail from the mob," says Morley.

Morley says another character in his book is Beverly Snow, a mixed race man who owned a restaurant in Washington which was frequented by the political elite of the day. He says during the riot, Snow's  eating establishment was trashed by the mob, mainly because they didn't like to see a black man being successful. "We see some of the same type of white backlash against success, and I think President Obama faced that, just a dislike of a black man for achievement. And somehow people resented this and it made them feel uneasy," Morley says, although he acknowledges President Obama faces a lot of opposition not just based on his race.

Despite siding with the pro-slavery supporters, Morley says he finds Key is a fascinating person. "Some people say my book was very hard on him. Other people say I was kind of easy on him. I can't even make up my own mind about that," he says.

In researching his book, Morley says he relied on court records of the time, letters Key wrote to his daughter, and information provided by the Maryland Historical Society. In addition, he says, Washington had four newspapers at the time, three dailies and a weekly publication.

Morley worked for The Washington Post, where he served as an editor for the Sunday Outlook section, and wrote for the Post's Sunday magazine. He has also written articles for the New Republic, Salon, Slate, the Nation, The New York Review of Books, Reader's Digest and Rolling Stone. He is also the author of "Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of The CIA." In 2009, Morley received the annual Censorship Award of PEN/Oakland for his investigation into the role of the CIA in events leading up the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Morley will speak on his book on Francis Scott Key on Wednesday night at 7:00 at the Frederick Visitors Center at 151 South East Street in Frederick.   Key is buried not far away at Mount Olivet Cemetery.