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Who is John Henry?
What is the story of John Henry?
Was John Henry a real person?
Why is John Henry A legend?
An amazing story of the human spirit and work ethic, yes, but was John Henry a real person? Most historians agree that he was, as thousands of African-Americans worked on the railroad, with hundreds perishing during the drilling of the Great Bend Tunnel .
Folklorists have long thought John Henry to be mythical, but historian Scott Nelson has discovered that he was a real person—a nineteen-year-old from New Jersey who was convicted of theft in a Virginia court in 1866, sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary, and put to work building the C&O Railroad.
The legend, as told through ballads and work songs, has kept the story of John Henry and the black railroad workers alive. In February of 1870, workers began drilling the Great Bend Tunnel where the Greenbrier River makes a seven-mile meander around Big Bend Mountain.
Dec 9, 2020 · Whether the legend of John Henry is true has been much debated. According to History News Network, many historians agree he was a real man, but that the circumstances of his death may be fictitious, or conflated with that of another figure.
Known for. American folk hero. 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.
- 1840s or 1850s
- American folk hero
Mar 7, 2024 · Although there were songs about John Henry, there were few stories of him, and, like Paul Bunyan, he is not truly a folk hero. The imaginative treatment by Roark Bradford in John Henry (1931) made the name known to many Americans. John Henry has been depicted in numerous works of art and has inspired film and television plots, but the story ...
19th Century America. John Henry. Introduction. Of uncertain historicity but undeniable cultural importance is the story of John Henry, the steel-driving man.