John Henry

John Henry is one of several larger-than-life American
heroes associated with specific occupations, like Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, Old
Stormalong and Febold Feboldson. But the incident depicted in the many versions
of the John Henry ballad actually may have occurred in some fashion. There's
just no way to know when, where, how and wherefore. But it's nice to believe
there's some to truth to this parable about people being stronger than the
machines they create. One reason it's so difficult to trace the mists of myth
is that John Henry is a common name, and it appears to have been especially
common among African-Americans working on the railroads. According to one
version of the tale our hero was a former slave, and in another version, he was
a prisoner rented out as a laborer. The town of Leeds,
Alabama claims to be the site of the famous
episode, but so does Tackett,
West Virginia, which even has
erected a statue of the most famous hammer-wielder since Thor. There's also
more than one