John Henry is an American folk hero. An African American freedman, he is said to have worked as a "steel-driving man"—a man tasked with hammering a steel drill into a rock to make holes for …

Nov 19, 2025 · 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 …

John Henry was known as the strongest, the fastest, and the most powerful man working on the railroad. He went up against the steam drill to prove that the black worker could drill a hole through the rock …

In his book, Nelson pieces together the biography of the real John Henry. It is also the story of work songs, songs that not only turned Henry into a folk hero but also, in reminding workers to slow down …

John Henry was a legendary steel driving man, whose life is the basis for one of the world's best-known folk tales. His fame rests on a single epic moment when he raced the steam drill during the building …

John Henry was an African American possibly newly freed from enslavement from either Virginia or North Carolina. He was between 30 and 35 years old when he came to the tunnel in 1870. He stood …

The Legend of John Henry is a significant American folktale that emerges from the Reconstruction era, highlighting the experiences of emancipated African American laborers. Central to the narrative is …

One among a legion of blacks just freed from the war, John Henry went to work rebuilding the Southern states whose territory had been ravaged by the Civil War. The period became known as the …

May 9, 2018 · A towering, legendary American working-class folk heroes, John Henry represents not only the nineteenth-century struggle of the human spirit against the coming industrial era but also …

4 days ago · Loving2Learn offers you a “Tall Tale – John Henry,” to readable online and a learn along video! Tall tales contain exaggeration, adventure, and outlandish characters!