Francis Scott Key, William Lloyd Garrison, Manuscript Circulation, and the Rewriteability of Burns

This article discusses rewritings of well-known Burns songs by two prominent nineteenth-century American writers, Francis Scott Key, author of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, who added a religious stanza to ‘John Anderson, My Jo’, and William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist editor and orator, who reworked ‘A Man’s a Man’, previously adapted as an anti-slavery anthem, to promote the women’s suffrage movement. The article examines and illustrates autograph manuscripts of both rewritings to show how Burns was adapted and circulated in manuscript form as well as in books, periodicals, and newspapers.