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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.
Mar 7, 2024 · John Henry. Statue of John Henry, near Talcott, West Virginia. 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.”
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.
John Henry - Learn about the amazing feats and history of John Henry the 'the steel-driving man' Famous for his speed and strength when digging into Rock by hand. Dicover John Henryism, and his Role in American Civil Rights Movement. John Henry Images, Facts, Books and Film.
Sep 28, 2013 · 3.2K. 875K views 10 years ago. 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 the...
Dec 9, 2020 · According to the historian Carlene Hempel , John Henry, the best and fastest of the thousand workers on the C&O Railway, took up two hammers in an attempt to prove the enduring value of the human labor of himself and his fellow steel drivers. In a steel-driving race against the machine, it is said that Henry managed to drill 14 feet into the ...
Sep 2, 2002 · Above all, "John Henry" is the single most well known and often recorded American folk song. For NPR's ongoing series Present at the Creation, musician and researcher Stephen Wade explores...
