John Henry, a mighty laborer who outperformed a mechanical drill, is a character who first appeared in African American songs and ballads. He can be seen as a symbol of black strength and of African Americans' refusal to be crushed. In more general terms, John Henry also represents the human will and spirit, which a machine may defeat but can never duplicate.

The character of John Henry sometimes receives the kind of exaggerated treatment given to other larger-than-life figures such as Paul Bunyan. For example, John Henry is said to have weighed 44 pounds at birth and to have gone looking for work after his first meal.

His story is linked to the spread of railroads across the United States as the Industrial Age got into full swing in the years after the American Civil War (1861-1865). John Henry became a "steel-drivin' man," someone who swung a heavy hammer at a steel drill, driving it into rock to make railway...