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John Henry. By Anonymous. When John Henry was a little tiny baby. Sitting on his mama's knee, He picked up a hammer and a little piece of steel. Saying, "Hammer's going to be the death of me, Lord, Lord, Hammer's going to be the death of me." John Henry was a man just six feet high,
The Ballad of John Henry was an Afro-American folk song dating back to the late 1800s. The song tells of a man who worked as a steel driver when the railroads were being built across Western America.
May 13, 2024 · 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
The story of John Henry is traditionally told through two types of songs: ballads, commonly called "The Ballad of John Henry", and "hammer songs" (a type of work song), each with wide-ranging and varying lyrics.
Ballad: A ballad is a poem that tells a story and is meant to be sung or recited. “John Henry” is one of the famous ballads of 19th century. Stanza : A stanza is a poetic form of some lines.
The song begins with John Henry’s premonition, while still a baby, that “Hammer’s gonna be the death of me.” Yet as a grown man he clings to that hammer and squarely faces the death that doing so brings him.
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Why do you think the story of John Henry came to be sung again and again by both white and African American workers? Why did workers identify with John Henry’s life and death? What other laborers and common people have become folk heroes?
