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John Henry is an American folk hero. An African American freedman, he is said to have worked as a "steel-driving man"—a man tasked with hammering a steel drill into a rock to make holes for explosives to blast the rock in constructing a railroad tunnel.
John Henry, hero of a widely sung African American folk ballad. It describes his contest with a steam drill, in which John Henry crushed more rock than did the machine but died “with his hammer in his hand.”
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
This ballad tells the story of John Henry, an American folk hero. According to legend, he was the strongest and fastest railroad workers in his day during th...
- 3 min
- 890.1K
- SingAnAmericanStory
Learn about the life and legacy of John Henry, a former prisoner who worked on the C&O Railroad and inspired a famous song. Historian Scott Nelson reveals how John Henry became a symbol of resistance and protest against machines and oppression.
- Introduction
- The Steel-Driver’S Story
- The Tunnel
- Legacy
- Role in American Civil Rights Movement
- John Henryism
Of uncertain historicity but undeniable cultural importance is the story of John Henry, the steel-driving man. He was an African American railroad worker who became a folk hero among the poor thanks to his earthy nature, physical prowess, and dramatic struggle against the machinery slowly replacing laborers like him.
The role of a steel-driving man is to hammer a steel drill into solid rock so that explosives can be inserted into the holes for the clearing out and construction of railroad tunnels. John Henry’s story is traditionally dated to sometime in the later half of the 19th century, at a time when manual steel-drivers were being replaced by faster, more e...
It is unclear exactly where or when John Henry won that tunnel race, if it did occur. Theories offered by various researchers over the years have suggested Big Bend Tunnel, West Virginia in 1870-72, Lewis Tunnel, Virginia in 1873, and Coosa Mountain Tunnel, Alabama in 1877. Many of these theories place John Henry as a former slave, or the son of a ...
Whether John Henry’s story is based in fact or fiction isn’t very important when we look at the symbol which he has become. Because of the profession he worked in until his dying breath, he has been used as a rallying point for labor movements, and in particular the countless other faceless railroad workers who died from accidents and illness over ...
Because of his race and the trials he nobly endured, his image was right at home with the American Civil Rights Movement. His story represents the worst aspects of exploitation and the degradation of human beings brought on by the age of machinery, yet he also embodies the greatest qualities of the human beings who fight and succeed through great a...
One legacy of John Henry that is especially apropos of his use as a symbol for black perseverance in the face of discrimination is the use of his name to describe a stress coping strategy. John Henryism (or simply JH) is the act of responding to prolonged stresses’ at work, in daily life, or from social discrimination’ by expending higher and highe...
- 2 min
A retelling of a West Virginia legend about a slave who became a steel-driver and challenged a steam-drill in a contest. Learn about John Henry's life, death and legacy in this folktale by S.E. Schlosser.
Dec 9, 2020 · Learn about the origin, history, and significance of the folk song and story of John Henry, a Black railroad worker who died trying to out-drill a machine. Discover how this legend inspired many artists and became a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement.
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