I personally believe that the legend of John Henry had to have been true, at least to some extent. John Henry was a black steal driving man who took on a steel driving machine and won. Even with his superhuman strength and power, John Henry still dies in the end and falls to the power of the steam powered steel driver. Like HuiLin points out in his blog, the machine wins anyways even though John sacrifices his life for his work and his fellow steel drivers. This symbolizes the power and unstoppable momentum of technology and man's inventions. Although they help man, they also kill some men too, both physically, mentally, and economically. I think that this legend grew from some kinda of true story because there seems to be sufficient evidence to support a true real life John Henry who was a steel driving man. I think that the story was probably exaggerated and changed over the years as exemplified by the early version of the song, then the construction crew one, then the folk vresion, and finally the prison gang version. The legend of John Henry is an American classic that could apply to anyone and everyone. I think that is why the legend has always been and continues to be very popular. We can even relate it today with the growing abilities of computers and robot like technology. Computers are beginning to take over more and more jobs and it is kind of scary. For example, I walked into the grocery store a few weeks ago and was surprised to see check yourself out counters that have replaced cashiers. It is sad to see we lose so many jobs to technology but in the long run it helps us right? It happened back in the times of railroad steel driving and it happens now and it will continue to happen until we may end up like WIll SMith's movie "I, Robot."
Posted by TrishaWehrle at November 27, 2004 7:27 PMTrisha,
I agree with you tha some parts of the John Henry Legend might be true but some people probably exaggerated the truth a little. When I think of these stories, I think of the game telephone because when we are told something we tend to exaggerate, add, or take out piece of the story. What do you think?
Posted by: Se-Ann Williams at November 30, 2004 7:51 PMSe-Ann,
I definitely agree with you that everyone probably added to the story everytime it was passed on. That is just the natural thing to do in story telling is exagerate to make it sound more appealing and interesting to your audience. People tend to change things to make the story relevant to their audience as well. The telephone game was an excellent way to show the changes stories take.
Trisha
Posted by: trish at December 1, 2004 12:13 AMHello! I happened to see your blog while searching for John Henry info. I just wanted to say that I know the John Henry story is true. My great-great grandfather was a cook at the Big Bend Tunnel from 1870-73. (The Big Bend in Talcott, WVa is where the story took place.) John Henry died of a brain anurysm (though the cause is not definite, this is the best educated guess) after beating the steam engine. His wife died years later and is buried in a cemetary near our summer house in Talcott. The land where John Henry worked was purchased from my family by the railroad (my cook great-great grandfather married into the landowning family). Thought you night find that interesting!
Posted by: Kat at April 19, 2005 9:17 PM I love him
John Henry SUCKS!
Posted by: Jimmy Joe at November 30, 2005 1:16 PMI think john henry was good person
Posted by: alfonso at January 7, 2006 10:32 AMi read a story years fiction of coarse but was interresting. Some one had come into posetion of on old rusty hammer and gets super power. its then later reveled it was the hammer of John Henry. Also there is a charater in the Superman
comics named Steel {one of the good guys) who is a black man who carries
a silver sledge hammer and is almost as stong as Superman.
Well resources say that John Henry was infact a real person. He conquered the Steam Drill and died of extreme exhaustion and of a massive heartattack. Also archoligists believe that they have supossedly found John Henry's remains. They say that John Henry had a deadly disease called Chlorea and if he had alot of action then they said he would indeed have a heartattack. They didn't expect him to die though. They thought it would be a small one but as a matter of fact it wasn't.
Posted by: Briana at March 24, 2006 5:08 PMhes fake
Posted by: savannah at April 3, 2006 1:39 PMJohn Rocks my world.....Hes hot i am sure!!!....how could anyone not love him....have u seen his body!!!
Posted by: Caitlin at May 1, 2006 2:44 PMJohn Rocks my world.....Hes hot i am sure!!!....how could anyone not love him....have u seen his body!!!
Posted by: Caitlin at May 1, 2006 2:45 PMi think he was real
Posted by: Amber at October 25, 2006 9:34 PMi kno wthat this story was real because i was there and i wrote it so wat do u think about that
Posted by: kieth lundmark at February 1, 2007 1:48 PMjohn hery is not real its a story the slaves used during work.
Posted by: henry at October 5, 2007 11:36 PM