ANTH-452-400
The Legend of John Henry: How the Folk Hero was Made.
History and Folklore Blog
How did the Man become the Legend?
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One of the most colorful characters in American folklore is the legendary John Henry. Whether he was a true historical figure or a fictitious hero carved into the minds of common Americans by oral tradition, his story has given inspiration to generations. (Parks)
How did a man become a legend you may ask?
Well for whatever reason, Folklore seems to have had a hand in making John Henry a hero that is still learned about today. As we know, "Folklore is present in many kind of informal communication, whether verbal (oral and written texts), customary (behaviors and rituals), or material (physical objects)." (Sims and Stephens). From what I've gathered, John Henry's legend was told and retold through song back in the late 1800's, and thus his legend grew due to people singing about and praising him for his strength, character, and strong spirit. This variation of Folklore is obviously Verbal Folklore, which is, "any kind of lore involving words, whether set to music, organized into chronological story form, or simply labeling an activity or expressing a belief with a word or phrase." (Sims and Stephens). The most common Verbal Folklore is folk songs, myths, or folktales, with John Henry and other folk heroes like him falling under one of the three I just mentioned. As is stands, verbal folklore such as this helps to spread the teachings of others in a way written words can't. Folklore songs such as John Henry's are often sung or told in different forms around the country, but despite that they do not lose their underlying meaning. "At times, people in different parts of the country might well sing their own, favored versions, and even adapt the lyrics to their own personal circumstances. But whatever the version, the songs' message did not fundamentally change. Their essential meaning remained constant." (Polenberg 5). In the case of John Henry, although his story is a tragic one in the end, it still lifts up people in a way that benefits everyone.
What exactly does the John Henry Ballad represent and why does it exist?
Well, as Geoff Edgers states in Analysis of John Henry Music, “John Henry, as ultimate working-class hero, has been embraced by disparate groups: black prisoners, white mountain musicians, college folk revivalists, elderly blues singers…The connector is this valiant battle, man against machine, man against boss, man against the power structure that keeps his people (African-Americans? Laborers?) in chains. He’s a hero to Woody Guthrie, a warning to Mississippi John Hurt, an inspiration to the chain gang. From verse-to-verse, generation-to-generation, the story changes to suit the singer. The name and steel-driving solitude stay the same.” (Edgers). More to the point, he is the working class hero that struggles to overcome any obstacle that stands between him and those he represents, whether they be white or black. However, through his songs and tales, it is more likely that he is associated with the repressed black people of the time, and still is today as his legend was cemented further with the commemoration of a statue in his honor. (Pictured Below)
Was John Henry a real person and his legend was just a built up story or real life exploits?
Well like other folk legends and heroes, there is always a grain of truth in the myths that are retold again and again. In this sense, John Henry is much like another folk hero by the name of Gregorio Cortez, who outran the law in a bid for his freedom from a wrongful imprisonment. In the book With His Pistol in His Hand the author Paredes states that to go along with the legend of Cortez and his difficult journey, "there is a sizable pile of documentary material on the man--in newspaper reports, in letters and official papers--which tells a great deal about his life. And this true story is no less remarkable than the legend which it inspired." (Paredes 55). Gregorio Cortez may have eventually died in the end, both in real life and his folklore tale, but his story still lives on through the citizens of the border and their ballad about his epic journey. Much like other folk heroes, Cortez lives on through the telling and retelling of his journey, with each telling breathing more life into the man long since turned to bones and dust.
According to sources and research done by other experts, John Henry was a lot similar to Gregorio Cortez in that he might have existed and the tales of what he had done were exaggerated and blown up into legends after his death. As it turns out, his legend began around the time of 1870, when the tracks for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway were being laid through the Appalachian. (Polenberg 149). Workers were just beginning to tunnel through Big Bend Mountain, the very same one that is talked about in John Henry's ballad, the very one he might've perished in. Although as it turns out, while songs about his feats might've been sung by the workers after his death, "the first printed version did not appear until 1909 when Louise Rand Bascom's 'Ballads and Songs of Western North Carolina' was published in the Journal of American Folklore." (Polenberg 150). After that, his legend and ballad slowly began to grain ground in essays by folklorists as well as others. The first recorded songs about him didn't surface until 1924, until than people only sung what they knew about the man.
Moving back a few years, in the 1920's, someone finally decides to go see if this man actually existed or if the tales about him were just ramblings from overworked rail workers. This man was Louis Watson Chappell, a professor of English at West Virginia University, and he wished to embark on a "folk-lore study" to see where this all started. He conducted interviews with workers, all quite old now, who had worked in the tunnel with John Henry or had claimed to have seen him work. While conducting these interviews, Chappell began too see the man take shape in the similar ways people described him and how he acted. He was a big and young black man (in his 30's), who was incredibly strong, had a good work ethic, was a exceptional leader of men, and could sing a sweet tune whenever he was hammering away. (Polenberg 151-152). While memories are often imperfect, Chappell found ample evidence to support the theory that John Henry did exist back in the 1800's, but there was a flaw in his research; he only interviewed white people. But soon others took up the challenge of determining the truth behind the songs and myths.
One such person was a sociologist named Guy B. Johnson, and while all his informants were white as well he at least sent out letters to papers asking for more information on the man, as well as setting up staged "John Henry contests" to obtain valuable texts and info. (Polenberg 152). He eventually wrote a book entitled, John Henry: Tracking Down a Negro Legend. In it he describes how the John Henry story is now known to nine-tenths of the black population, whether in one form or another, and that John Henry did actually work on the Big Bend Tunnel and he did compete with a steam drill and died due to winning. (Polenberg 152). Regarding this supposed contest, Johnson interviewed men who worked in the tunnel and they claimed steel-driving contests were pretty common, and that a man that could've been John Henry did out run a steam drill when the drill was still in its early stages of functioning. (Polenberg 152). In his conclusion, Johnson said that, "there remains the fact that the legend itself is a reality, a living, functioning thing in the folk life of the Negro." (Polenberg 152). However, the search for the truth didn't stop there and it persisted even into and after WWII.
Another person interested in the folk hero was named MacEdward Leach, an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1967 he published an essay claiming that John Henry didn't die in the United States, but instead in Jamaica. Like Johnson before him, Leach recognized that John Henry had become, "a symbol of the Negro people, supreme in valor, strength, love, the conqueror of the white man's machine." (Polenberg 154). However, regarding the Jamaican theory, he had recognized a thread of contradiction in the story. You see, while on a trip in Jamaica in 1957, he was shown something, a map, that had been drawn in 1894 with a song lyric that almost mirrored that of a verse from the John Henry ballad. He came to the conclusion that a man that might've been John Henry did exist in Jamaica between the years of 1894 and 1896, and that he, "was killed during construction work on the Garden Town--Newcastle road and specifically at Number 9 tunnel while at work on the construction of the Kingston--Port Antonio railroad." (Polenberg 154). He goes on to write that the Jamaican songs concerning John Henry were older than the ones in the United States, by at least ten years. Thus, "the Jamaican material must be considered in any theory of the genesis of the John Henry legend and songs." (Polenberg 154). Although these facts and findings are still debated today and many are still offering up their own versions of his origins.
Yet even today, John Henry isn't far from peoples minds and hearts. His songs are still sung and his tale is still told, and even shown in films and plays (like the Disney Film in the Video page). What was true back in the day remains true today; it doesn't matter if his origins are true or false, whether he existed or not. "Ultimately, John Henry remains a protean figure, meaning different things to different people at different times, but many who sing the songs may still believe that 'this old hammer killed John Henry / But it won't kill me, it won't kill me.'" (Polenberg 154). To put it simply, whether or not John Henry existed in the past, his life and story have grown into their own entity that exists today and will continue to exist far into the future. He was a steel-driving man who inspired many people to never give up in the face of overwhelming odds, a role model for hard workers, and the face of a community. John Henry is a legend, and his legend goes on and on like most other Folk Heroes, because people enjoy his story. While most of these tales don't end happily like John Henry's, it does have a purpose. "These stories and songs tell of tragic, sometimes heartbreaking, events, but reading the stories and hearing the songs may enlarge our capacity for compassion and understanding." (Polenberg 6). His tale and many others are what one folklorist called "the product of the people," and they should always serve to remind us of our shared humanity, regardless if the tales are true or not. (Polenberg 6).
