The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #43251   Message #630913
Posted By: masato sakurai
18-Jan-02 - 10:57 PM
Thread Name: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
Subject: RE: Why did John Henry hammer till he died?
In one version ("one of the first black-derived versions to reach print"), John Henry foretells his death:

John Henry said to his Cappun: "Boss,
A man hain't nothin' but a man,
An' 'fore I'll be beat in dis sexion gang,
I'll die wid a hammer in my han'."

(Charles K. Wolfe, ed., Thomas Talley's Negro Folk Rhymes, 1990 [originally 1922], p. 89)

~Masato