I am a new member and would like to share with you some information about the ?John Henry? ballad. I have been looking at the ballad in connection with an essay I am writing, and would greatly appreciate getting your feedback about my ideas.
There are eight ?rebel? versions of ?John Henry? which I have come across in my research, and which I believe are a very important?but unknown--part of the John Henry story. I believe that you will be very surprised by their lyrical content. They remind me of Lawrence Gellert?s collection of black protest songs. Below is the key verse from one of the versions. I believe these versions are largely unknown to performers, music fans, and music scholars.
John Henry told his captain,
?A man ain?t nothing but a man.
Before I?d let you beat me down,
I?d die with the hammer in my hand.?
(All eight versions are near the end of this post.)
In my opinion, these "rebel" versions may reveal that John Henry was widely regarded among African Americans as a figure of resistance and protest, and that much of that resistance and protest is symbolic or coded. In all of these rebel versions, a well-known verse from the song which begins ?John Henry said to the captain? has been transformed from a statement of resolve concerning defeating the steam drill into a rebellious challenge against the captain. Possibly, these alternate lyrics are decoded counterparts to the better known lyrics. If John Henry is coded, then his victory over the steam drill may actually be symbolic of him defeating the captain. W.C. Handy wrote that when a slave sang about Moses telling Pharaoh to let my people go, he was actually ?thinking about his own freedom. But he dared not sing about himself, so he sang of Pharaoh.? Similarly, African Americans may have sung of John Henry defeating the drill because they dared not sing about him defeating the captain.
It only makes sense that John Henry would be a figure of black resistance and protest when you consider that he was a great symbol of manhood to African Americans. Wouldn?t this great symbol of black manhood do what a real man would do? Wouldn?t a big and powerful man like him stand up for himself and his people and fight back against being whipped or mistreated by the captain? I?m not saying that the song was not a story of man against machine or a protest against the loss of jobs due to industrialization. But I am saying that it may also have been a protest against white oppression.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me of your own opinions or thoughts about John Henry and about the possibilities that I have raised above. I imagine that what I am presenting could be quite controversial and might meet with some resistance.
I am also interested in any suggestions about how I might get an article about my research published. I've
never had anything published before. Are there any writers out there who could point me in the right direction?
Thank you so much for your time and input!
Jim Hauser
All eight rebel versions are below. Four of them are in Howard Odum and Guy B. Johnson's Negro Workaday Songs. Two of them are from Guy B. Johnson's John Henry: Tracking Down a Negro Legend.
Commonly known version of the key verse:
John Henry said to the captain
A man ain't nothing but a man
Before I let that steam drill beat me down
I will die with a hammer in my hand.
Rebel versions of the key verse:
Rebel versions 1 to 3:
John Henry warns his captain against beating him. Rebel version 1 is what sparked my research. It's from a book by a white criminal named Ernest Booth who turned to writing while in prison. It was published in 1929. According to Booth, he heard it at the age of ten in a black brothel. He had been taken in by the brothel's madame shortly after he and a friend had decided to see the world by hoboing on trains.
Rebel Version 1 (from Ernest Booth's Stealing Through Life)
John Henry tole his cap?en one day:
?A man ain?t nuffin? but a man,
But ?fore ah?d let yo? hit me on the --- wid dat strap,
Ah?d die wif dis hammer in mah han? . . . ?
Hey . . . hey . . . hey . . .
Rebel Version 2 (from Odum & Johnson)
John Henry went to captain,
Say, ?Man ain?t nothin? but a man.
Befo? I let you beat me down
I die wid de hammer in my han?.?
Rebel Version 3 (from Johnson)
John Henry told his captain,
?A man ain?t nothing but a man.
Before I?d let you beat me down
I?d die with the hammer in my hand.?
Rebel versions 4 and 5:
John Henry warns his captain that he will not let ?a man??that is, any man?beat him down, and this implies that he will not let the captain beat him. It might seem that this is an indirect, rather than direct, challenge against the captain. But, in the Jim Crow south?an environment where absolute subservience was demanded of black people in their interactions with whites?even the slightest indirect challenge by a black worker would probably have been perceived by his boss or captain as a direct and intolerable challenge to his authority.
Rebel Version 4 (from Johnson)
John Henry said to the captain,
?A man ain?t nothing but a man,
Before I let a man beat me down
I will die with my hammer in my hand.?
Rebel Version 5 (from Odum & Johnson)
John Henry said to his captain
?Lawd, a man ain?t nothin? but a man,
Befo? I let a man beat me down
I?d die wid de hammer in my han?.?
Rebel versions 6 and 7:
In versions six and seven, John Henry warns the captain against overworking him.
Rebel Version 6 (from Odum & Johnson)
John Henry said to his captain,
?Man ain?t nothin? but a man,
Befo? I work from sun to sun
I?d die wid de hammer in my han?.?
Rebel Version 7 (from Odum & Johnson)
John Henry told his captain
?A man ain?t nothin? but a man,
Befo? I work from sun to sun
I?d die wid de hammer in my han?.?
Rebel version 8:
John Henry warns his captain against driving him down, which I believe means working him to the point of collapsing.
Rebel Version 8 (from Bruce Jackson's Wake Up Dead Man)
John Henry told-a the Captain,
He said, ?A man ain?t but a man,
And before I?ll stand to let you drive me down,
I will die with the hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord,
I've also identified seven other versions of the song in which John Henry does not threaten his captain, but does step over the boundary of what people in the Jim Crow south considered to be acceptable behavior for a black man. For example, he tells the captain to "shut up" in a version by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
Jim Hauser
This post and my subsequent posts have been edited to update the link (see below) to my website John Henry: The Rebel Versions.
https://sites.google.com/view/johnhenrytherebelversions/home
I'm also editing this post by adding the link below to my article "Stagolee and John Henry: Two Black Freedom Songs?" which was published in the African American Folklorist in the year 2020.
https://theafricanamericanfolklorist.com/articles/a-hrefhttptheafricanamericanfolkloristcom20201129twoblackfreedomsongsstagolee-and-john-henry-two-black-freedom-songsa
There are eight ?rebel? versions of ?John Henry? which I have come across in my research, and which I believe are a very important?but unknown--part of the John Henry story. I believe that you will be very surprised by their lyrical content. They remind me of Lawrence Gellert?s collection of black protest songs. Below is the key verse from one of the versions. I believe these versions are largely unknown to performers, music fans, and music scholars.
John Henry told his captain,
?A man ain?t nothing but a man.
Before I?d let you beat me down,
I?d die with the hammer in my hand.?
(All eight versions are near the end of this post.)
In my opinion, these "rebel" versions may reveal that John Henry was widely regarded among African Americans as a figure of resistance and protest, and that much of that resistance and protest is symbolic or coded. In all of these rebel versions, a well-known verse from the song which begins ?John Henry said to the captain? has been transformed from a statement of resolve concerning defeating the steam drill into a rebellious challenge against the captain. Possibly, these alternate lyrics are decoded counterparts to the better known lyrics. If John Henry is coded, then his victory over the steam drill may actually be symbolic of him defeating the captain. W.C. Handy wrote that when a slave sang about Moses telling Pharaoh to let my people go, he was actually ?thinking about his own freedom. But he dared not sing about himself, so he sang of Pharaoh.? Similarly, African Americans may have sung of John Henry defeating the drill because they dared not sing about him defeating the captain.
It only makes sense that John Henry would be a figure of black resistance and protest when you consider that he was a great symbol of manhood to African Americans. Wouldn?t this great symbol of black manhood do what a real man would do? Wouldn?t a big and powerful man like him stand up for himself and his people and fight back against being whipped or mistreated by the captain? I?m not saying that the song was not a story of man against machine or a protest against the loss of jobs due to industrialization. But I am saying that it may also have been a protest against white oppression.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me of your own opinions or thoughts about John Henry and about the possibilities that I have raised above. I imagine that what I am presenting could be quite controversial and might meet with some resistance.
I am also interested in any suggestions about how I might get an article about my research published. I've
never had anything published before. Are there any writers out there who could point me in the right direction?
Thank you so much for your time and input!
Jim Hauser
All eight rebel versions are below. Four of them are in Howard Odum and Guy B. Johnson's Negro Workaday Songs. Two of them are from Guy B. Johnson's John Henry: Tracking Down a Negro Legend.
Commonly known version of the key verse:
John Henry said to the captain
A man ain't nothing but a man
Before I let that steam drill beat me down
I will die with a hammer in my hand.
Rebel versions of the key verse:
Rebel versions 1 to 3:
John Henry warns his captain against beating him. Rebel version 1 is what sparked my research. It's from a book by a white criminal named Ernest Booth who turned to writing while in prison. It was published in 1929. According to Booth, he heard it at the age of ten in a black brothel. He had been taken in by the brothel's madame shortly after he and a friend had decided to see the world by hoboing on trains.
Rebel Version 1 (from Ernest Booth's Stealing Through Life)
John Henry tole his cap?en one day:
?A man ain?t nuffin? but a man,
But ?fore ah?d let yo? hit me on the --- wid dat strap,
Ah?d die wif dis hammer in mah han? . . . ?
Hey . . . hey . . . hey . . .
Rebel Version 2 (from Odum & Johnson)
John Henry went to captain,
Say, ?Man ain?t nothin? but a man.
Befo? I let you beat me down
I die wid de hammer in my han?.?
Rebel Version 3 (from Johnson)
John Henry told his captain,
?A man ain?t nothing but a man.
Before I?d let you beat me down
I?d die with the hammer in my hand.?
Rebel versions 4 and 5:
John Henry warns his captain that he will not let ?a man??that is, any man?beat him down, and this implies that he will not let the captain beat him. It might seem that this is an indirect, rather than direct, challenge against the captain. But, in the Jim Crow south?an environment where absolute subservience was demanded of black people in their interactions with whites?even the slightest indirect challenge by a black worker would probably have been perceived by his boss or captain as a direct and intolerable challenge to his authority.
Rebel Version 4 (from Johnson)
John Henry said to the captain,
?A man ain?t nothing but a man,
Before I let a man beat me down
I will die with my hammer in my hand.?
Rebel Version 5 (from Odum & Johnson)
John Henry said to his captain
?Lawd, a man ain?t nothin? but a man,
Befo? I let a man beat me down
I?d die wid de hammer in my han?.?
Rebel versions 6 and 7:
In versions six and seven, John Henry warns the captain against overworking him.
Rebel Version 6 (from Odum & Johnson)
John Henry said to his captain,
?Man ain?t nothin? but a man,
Befo? I work from sun to sun
I?d die wid de hammer in my han?.?
Rebel Version 7 (from Odum & Johnson)
John Henry told his captain
?A man ain?t nothin? but a man,
Befo? I work from sun to sun
I?d die wid de hammer in my han?.?
Rebel version 8:
John Henry warns his captain against driving him down, which I believe means working him to the point of collapsing.
Rebel Version 8 (from Bruce Jackson's Wake Up Dead Man)
John Henry told-a the Captain,
He said, ?A man ain?t but a man,
And before I?ll stand to let you drive me down,
I will die with the hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord,
I've also identified seven other versions of the song in which John Henry does not threaten his captain, but does step over the boundary of what people in the Jim Crow south considered to be acceptable behavior for a black man. For example, he tells the captain to "shut up" in a version by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
Jim Hauser
This post and my subsequent posts have been edited to update the link (see below) to my website John Henry: The Rebel Versions.
https://sites.google.com/view/johnhenrytherebelversions/home
I'm also editing this post by adding the link below to my article "Stagolee and John Henry: Two Black Freedom Songs?" which was published in the African American Folklorist in the year 2020.
https://theafricanamericanfolklorist.com/articles/a-hrefhttptheafricanamericanfolkloristcom20201129twoblackfreedomsongsstagolee-and-john-henry-two-black-freedom-songsa