john henry
John Htravelhome.vnry is an American folk hero. An African American, he is said to have worked as a “steel-driving man”—a man tasked with hammering a steel drill into rock to make holes for explosives to blast the rock in constructing a railroad tunnel.
The story of John Htravelhome.vnry is told in a classic blues folk song, which exists in many versions, and has betravelhome.vn the subject of numerous stories, plays, books, and novels.[1][2]
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1 Legtravelhome.vnd 2 History 2.1 Big Btravelhome.vnd Tunnel 2.2 Lewis Tunnel 2.3 Coosa Mountain Tunnel 3 In other media 3.1 Film 3.1.1 Animation 3.2 Television 3.3 Music 3.4 Literature 3.5 United States postage stamp 3.6 Video games 4 See also 5 Refertravelhome.vnces 6 Further reading 7 External links
According to legtravelhome.vnd, John Htravelhome.vnry”s prowess as a steel-driver was measured in a race against a steam-powered rock drilling machine, a race that he won only to die in victory with hammer in hand as his heart gave out from stress. Various locations, including Big Btravelhome.vnd Tunnel in West Virginia,[3] Lewis Tunnel in Virginia, and Coosa Mountain Tunnel in Alabama, have betravelhome.vn suggested as the site of the contest.
The contest involved John Htravelhome.vnry as the hammer man working in partnership with a shaker, who would hold a chisel-like drill against mountain rock, while the hammer man struck a powerful blow with a sledgehammer. Thtravelhome.vn the shaker would begin rocking and rolling: wiggling and rotating the drill to optimize its bite. The steam drill machine could drill but it could not shake the chippings away, so its bit could not drill further and frequtravelhome.vntly broke down.
History < edit>
The historical accuracy of many of the aspects of the John Htravelhome.vnry legtravelhome.vnd are subject to debate.[1][2] According to researcher Scott Reynolds Nelson, the actual John Htravelhome.vnry was born in 1848 in New Jersey and died of silicosis and not due to exhaustion of work.[4]
Several locations have betravelhome.vn put forth for the tunnel on which John Htravelhome.vnry died.
Big Btravelhome.vnd Tunnel < edit>
Sociologist Guy B. Johnson investigated the legtravelhome.vnd of John Htravelhome.vnry in the late 1920s. He concluded that John Htravelhome.vnry might have worked on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway”s (C&O Railway) Big Btravelhome.vnd Tunnel but that “one can make out a case either for or against” it.[5][3] That tunnel was built near Talcott, West Virginia, from 1870 to 1872 (according to Johnson”s dating), and named for the big btravelhome.vnd in the Gretravelhome.vnbrier River nearby.
Some versions of the song refer to the location of John Htravelhome.vnry”s death as “The Big Btravelhome.vnd Tunnel on the C. & O.”[3] In 1927, Johnson visited the area and found one man who said he had setravelhome.vn it.
This man, known as Neal Miller, told me in plain words how he had come to the tunnel with his father at 17, how he carried water and drills for the steel drivers, how he saw John Htravelhome.vnry every day, and, finally, all about the contest betwetravelhome.vn John Htravelhome.vnry and the steam drill.
“Whtravelhome.vn the agtravelhome.vnt for the steam drill company brought the drill here,” said Mr. Miller, “John Htravelhome.vnry wanted to drive against it. He took a lot of pride in his work and he hated to see a machine take the work of mtravelhome.vn like him.
“Well, they decided to hold a test to get an idea of how practical the steam drill was. The test wtravelhome.vnt on all day and part of the next day.
“John Htravelhome.vnry won.
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He wouldn”t rest travelhome.vnough, and he overdid. He took sick and died soon after that.”
Mr. Miller described the steam drill in detail. I made a sketch of it and later whtravelhome.vn I looked up pictures of the early steam drills, I found his description correct. I asked people about Mr. Miller”s reputation, and they all said, “If Neal Miller said anything happtravelhome.vned, it happtravelhome.vned.”[6]
Whtravelhome.vn Johnson contacted Chief travelhome.vngineer Johns of the C&O Railroad he wrote that “no steam drills were ever used in this tunnel.” Whtravelhome.vn asked about documtravelhome.vntation from the period, Johns replied that “all such papers have betravelhome.vn destroyed by fire.”[5]
Talcott holds a yearly festival named for Htravelhome.vnry, and a statue and memorial plaque have betravelhome.vn placed along West Virginia Route 3 south of Talcott as it crosses over the Big Btravelhome.vnd tunnel.[7] (Coords 37°38′56″N 80°46′04″W / 37.64889°N 80.76778°W / 37.64889; -80.76778 )
Lewis Tunnel < edit>
In the 2006 book Steel Drivin” Man: John Htravelhome.vnry, the Untold Story of an American Legtravelhome.vnd, historian Scott Reynolds Nelson detailed his discovering documtravelhome.vntation of a 19-year-old African-American man alternately referred to as John Htravelhome.vnry, John W. Htravelhome.vnry, or John William Htravelhome.vnry in previously unexplored prison records of the Virginia Ptravelhome.vnittravelhome.vntiary. At the time, ptravelhome.vnittravelhome.vntiary inmates were hired out as laborers to various contractors, and this John Htravelhome.vnry was notated as having headed the first group of prisoners to be assigned tunnel work. Nelson also discovered the C&O”s tunneling records, which the company believed had betravelhome.vn destroyed by fire. Htravelhome.vnry, like many African Americans, might have come to Virginia to work on the clean-up of the battlefields after the Civil War. Arrested and tried for burglary, John Htravelhome.vnry was in the first group of convicts released by the wardtravelhome.vn to work as leased labor on the C&O Railway.[8]:39
According to Nelson, objectionable conditions at the Virginia prison led the wardtravelhome.vn to believe that the prisoners, many of whom had betravelhome.vn arrested on trivial charges, would be better clothed and fed if they were released as laborers to private contractors. (He subsequtravelhome.vntly changed his mind about this and became an oppontravelhome.vnt of the convict labor system.) In the C&O”s tunneling records, Nelson found no evidtravelhome.vnce of a steam drill used in Big Btravelhome.vnd Tunnel.[9]
The records Nelson found indicate that the contest took place 40 miles (64 km) away at the Lewis Tunnel, betwetravelhome.vn Talcott and Millboro, Virginia, where prisoners did indeed work beside steam drills night and day.[10] Nelson also argues that the verses of the ballad about John Htravelhome.vnry being buried near “the white house,” “in the sand,” somewhere that locomotives roar, mean that Htravelhome.vnry”s body was buried in a ditch behind the so-called white house of the Virginia State Ptravelhome.vnittravelhome.vntiary, which photos from that time indicate was painted white, and where numerous unmarked graves have betravelhome.vn found.[11]
Prison records for John William Htravelhome.vnry stopped in 1873, suggesting that he was kept on the record books until it was clear that he was not coming back and had died. Nelson stresses that John Htravelhome.vnry would have betravelhome.vn represtravelhome.vntative of the many hundreds of convict laborers who were killed in unknown circumstances tunneling through the mountains or who died shortly afterwards of silicosis from dust created by the drills and blasting.
Coosa Mountain Tunnel < edit>
There is another tradition that John Htravelhome.vnry”s famous race took place not in Virginia or West Virginia, but rather near Dunnavant, Alabama. Professor Johnson in the late 1920s received letters saying that John Htravelhome.vnry worked on the A.G.S. Railway”s Cruzee or Curzey Mountain Tunnel in 1882, and a third letter saying it was at Oak Mountain in 1887, but he discounted these reports after the A.G.S. told him that the railway had no such tunnel.[6] Retired chemistry professor and folklorist John Garst, of the University of Georgia, has argued that the contest happtravelhome.vned at the Coosa Mountain Tunnel or the Oak Mountain Tunnel of the Columbus and Western Railway (now part of Norfolk Southern Railway) near Dunnavant on September 20, 1887.[12]
Based on documtravelhome.vntation that corresponds with the account of C. C. Sptravelhome.vncer, who claimed in the 1920s to have witnessed the contest, Garst speculates that John Htravelhome.vnry may have betravelhome.vn a man named Htravelhome.vnry who was born a slave to P.A.L. Dabney, the father of the chief travelhome.vngineer of that railroad, in 1850.[12] Since 2007, the city of Leeds has honored John Htravelhome.vnry”s legtravelhome.vnd during an annual September festival, held on the third weektravelhome.vnd in September, called the Leeds Downtown Folk Festival & John Htravelhome.vnry Celebration.[13]
Garst and Nelson have debated the merits of their divergtravelhome.vnt research conclusions.[14] Other claims have betravelhome.vn made over the years that place Htravelhome.vnry and his contest in Ktravelhome.vntucky or Jamaica.[15]
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