Henry, John, an African-American laborer, is a hero in American folklore. He is the subject of perhaps the most famous American folk ballad and of many stories and songs.
The original story about John Henry is based on an actual event involving a man of that name. In the early 1870’s, laborers were building the Big Bend Tunnel on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in West Virginia. They used long-handled hammers to pound a steel drill into rock when making holes to hold blasting explosives. One day, a man brought an experimental steam drill to the site. He claimed it could dig a hole faster than 20 workers using hammers.
According to the ballad, John Henry raced the steam drill to prove that a man could dig a hole faster than a machine:
They placed John Henry on the right-hand side, The steam drill on the left; He said, “Before I let that steam drill beat me down I’ll die with my hammer in my hand, O Lord, And send my soul to rest.”
In the ballad, John Henry won the race but died from exhaustion at the moment of his victory. The real John Henry, after beating the steam drill in the race, is said to have been crushed by rock that fell from the ceiling of the tunnel.
The legend of John Henry developed from ballads, songs, and stories about him. He symbolized the workers’ fight against being replaced by machines. The earliest known written version of the ballad appeared about 1900.
