John Henry (folklore)
John Henry is a legendary American folk hero. Its historicity is disputed. His life data are unknown (approx. 1840-1870 ).
Tradition tells the following story: John Henry was employed as a freed black as railway workers. According to other versions he was a prisoner, who was assigned to forced labor. His job was in heavy manual work as so-called "steel -driving man" ( railroad workers ) to drive the blast holes for tunneling for a new railway line in West Virginia in the rock. One day, this work should be done by the new steam-powered hammers, Henry volunteered to take up a competition with these new rotary hammers. According to legend, John Henry won, but then broke down dead. The railway line where Henry should have worked, belonged to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and is now a part of the Norfolk Southern Railway.
Before the Big Bend Tunnel near Talcott, West Virginia, where this event is said to have taken place, today a memorial plaque is located 37.65 ° N, 80.77 ° W37.648975 - 80.767667 and a statue 37.65 ° N, 80.77 ° W37.649067 - 80.767675.
The story of John Henry was called " Ballad of John Henry" including the "Take the hammer " motif often musically implemented (eg by Johnny Cash, Joe Bonamassa, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Harry Belafonte, Jerry Lee Lewis and others). As a symbolic figure of John Henry is in the U.S. labor movement is important.
Further Reading
- Johnson, Guy B. ( 1929) John Henry: Tracking Down a Negro Legend. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
- Chappell, Louis W. (1933 ) John Henry; A Folk -Lore Study. Reprinted 1968 Port Washington, NY:. Kennikat Press
- Keats, Ezra Jack (1965 ) John Henry, An American Legend. New York: Pantheon Books.
- Williams, Brett (1983 ) John Henry: A Bio - Bibliography by Brett Williams. Westport, CT:. Greenwood Press
- Nelson, Scott. " Who Was John Henry Railroad Construction, Southern Folklore, and the Birth of Rock and Roll? " Labor: Studies in Working - Class History of the Americas Summer 2005 2: 53-80;