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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 .
Jul 24, 2018 · Outside the Big Bend Tunnel in Talcott, West Virginia, stands a statue of a powerfully built man holding a hammer in his hands. It pays tribute to John Henry, the American folk hero whose larger-than-life feats inspired the popular song, “The Ballad of John Henry.”. According to legend, Henry was an African American railroad worker on the ...
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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.
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 ...
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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.
Nelson is sure that he has found the real John Henry. The figure he presents bears only a distant relationship to the ballad legend. Nelson's John Henry was from New Jersey, was very short, very young, and very unfree. John Henry is unveiled as part of the "hidden history" of the convict labor force that helped
Nov 23, 2006 · John Henry has remained an icon, especially among young blacks. But until now, no one knew whether a real man was a model for the myth. A professor of history at the College of William and...