steel driving man by scott nelson: mythwork and the legend of john henry

hammer in both my hands

as many of you know, john henry was my boy
one of the great mythic characters of american lore

a steel driving man who refused to let a steam drill beat him down
and he died with his hammer in his hand

recent academic work has come out called 'steel driving man'
by this guy scott reynolds nelson, oxford university press

attempts to account for the mytholization of the prototype john henry
one john william henry, a leased convict working on the C&O railroad tunnel
back in the mid 1870s

a relatively little man who in legend because the legendary big man, john henry
i have not read the work yet so i cant testify to the quality of his speculations

but as a working mythmaker myself and a devotee of big john henry
i find the opportunity to consider the evolution of the john henry myth fascinating

according to recent nytime book review, nelson

claims john henry ballards, which started about 1870s refer
to john william henry, black union soldier imprisoned for theft

10 dollars of food from a grocery store bought him 10 years hard labor

leased out with other inmates to drive the lewis tunnel through
allegheny mountains for the cheseapeak & ohio railway

during this dig new steam drills were tested against men
and men generally won against the cranky drills

many of these convicts died of silicosis
and were buried surreptitiously

over 300 skeletons were found buried under the main building
of the virginia state penitentiary when it was dug up 1990s

around 1874, john henry williams dissappears from the penitentiary rolls
but no death, pardon or release is recorded, he just disappears

deaths on grounds were recorded, no records implies that he died
off grounds, as did many leased convicts speculates mr nelson

then mr nelson traces the evolution of the legends that have grown
around john henry and how different types of workers have always

made him their personal representative - coalminers made him a miner,
white railroad workers thought he was white -

black power advocates made him a rebel - thats where i come in

id read dubose heywards charming mythwork and
ive read many john henry tropes in african american lit

ive heard innumerous renditions of the john henry ballards
from elder bluesman to hiphop remixes to johnny cash

but i think i really got turned on to john henry when cannonball adderly
did a folk opera that ran one time just when i happened to be in new york

where big joe williams played john henry and randy crawford debut as
pollyanne, though they called her something else, that big john henry fascinated me

ive since hunted down the rare album and transferred it to cd
and worked a john henry character into rest for the weary

ive got a whole neighborhood of folk built on mythic characters, highjohn the conqueror
john henry and pollyanne, frankie and johnny, staggerlee, bruh rabbit, etc etc in rest for the weary

in rootsblog and otherwork, i often use imagery and tropes drawn from john henry mythwork
recently used rainbows around my shoulders here - used shine like silver, ring like gold

which all come from hammer songs, used to help keep the rhythm right, keep the teamwork smooth

back then a well drilled human team used to working with each other
could always beat a steamdrill, which tended to break down under pressure

i see the indestructability of the human spirit in it
triumphant even in sacrifice

what im trying to do with this neighborhood of mythic characters in rest
and playing with modern interpretations of their myths is try to engage

the mythic tropes of african american culture/destiny and update/recast
them in a 21st century mode, one pertinent to our lives and struggles

as cultural myths should be

i dont want our primary myths to be cultural curiosities divorced from our lives
i want our cultural myths to be vibrant, living instruments providing essential guidance and

rest for the weary souls

let me recap the legend for those who dont know it
as told it in a post i did june of last year

i like adding pollyanne, supposed to have been his wife
and who according to legend 'drove steel like a man'

cause couplizing our myths is pertinent to rest for the wearys vision
and i want to encourage love and commitment in the culture

the legend of john henry and pollyanne,
as told by rickydoc flowers

brother john henry was working on a tunnel being driven through the big bend mountain
when they told him he was being replaced by a steam drill

john henry laughed bigman loud and said before i let a steam drill beat me down
i will die with this hammer in my hand lord, i will die with this hammer in my hand

so john henry he picked up a hammer in each hand and he commence
to driving steel with those hammers swinging so sweet folk that was there
say he had rainbows over his shoulders, ring like silver shine like gold

and then that steam drill commence to driving steel like a natural man
and you never seen nothing like it, they moved through that mountain
like a boll weevil through cotton

and when folk felt the earth a shaking john henry told them not to worry
thats just the sound of my hammer sucking wind lord, just the sound
of my hammer sucking wind

and before i let this power driver beat me down i will die with this hammer in my hand
lord i will die with this hammer in my hand

now as most folk know, thats exactly what happen, john henry beat that steam drill
but he died with his hammer in his hand lord, yes he died with his hammer in his hand

what folk generally dont know is that john henry had a wife name was pollyanne
just a little bit of a thing but pollyanne drove steel like a man lord, pollyanne
drove steel like a man

so when she seen her man falter and she seen the lefthand hammer fall from his hand
she scooped that hammer up before it hit the ground and didnt miss a lick, 

and both hammers swinging, they drove that tunnel right through big bend mountain
and they beat that steam drill too lord, they beat that steam drill down

of course john henry was a dead man walking by then, but that righthand hammer didnt get
the news, it kept on following pollyanne, right thru big bend mountain

and to this day when folk going through the big bend tunnel they commence to listening
cause when they so deep under that mountain that the sun dont shine
you can feel that vibration up in there some folk say thats what a train sound like when its buried under a mountain of stone

but folk that know these things say thats the sound of those hammers sucking wind lord lord, thats the sound of those hammers sucking wind

those same folk say if you listen real good you can hear two hammers, hitting like a heart beat
and right in the middle of that heartbeat you can hear john henry and pollyanne singing

aint nothing we cant do lord, aint nothing we cant do, with a hammer in each and every hand
lord lord, with a hammer in each and every hand

okay, thats the way i tell it

word
according to rickydoc trickmaster

Comments

[John Garst]

I am a John Henry researcher. My paper on the subject, "Chasing John Henry in Alabama and Mississippi," appears in Tributaries: Journal of the Alabama Folklife Association, Issue No. 5, 2002. A synopsis can be found at

http://www.ibiblio.org/john_henry/alabama.html

I think that the evidence that John Henry was John Henry Dabney, a Mississippian who died after racing a steam drill in Dunnavant, Alabama, in 1887, is much stronger than that marshalled by Nelson in his book, "Steel Drivin' Man." Testimonial and documentary evidence dovetail nicely to build a strong, albeit circumstantial, case.

Nelson found no evidence that his candidate, John William Henry, was a steel driver and no evidence of a contest between a man and a machine. I think it highly unlikely that the lines of the ballad saying they "took John Henry to the white house" were present in the original version. Thus, I consider Nelson's finding a white workhouse at the Virginia Penitentiary to be irrelevant. I also think it unlikely that the bodies of convicts who died at Lewis Tunnel were sent back to the Virginia Penitentiary in Richmond for burial, as Nelson's case requires. They were probably buried in the graveyard at Lewis Tunnel. Further, "John Henry" was such a common name that finding a convict with that name at Lewis Tunnel carries no logical force.

Much discussion can be found at

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=4018

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=50747

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=45408

[rickydoc flowers]

hey,im with you
the more speculation the merrier

like i say i havent read nelsons work
so i cant testify to the quality of his speculations

im looking forward now to reading both works
the more perspective i get the more informed
my own speculations

im just tickled there is so much out here
on him

was thinking the other day i got to get my
hands on patty schroeders robert johnson work

more afro am mythwork id like to trace

thanks for the heads up
i hate to make uninformed commentary