13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book really touched my soul !, February 8, 2007
Although I am a Civil War aficionado, I had rarely read about what happened directly after the war. However, this book has changed my reading habits!!
From the time I was a child, I had a special affection for the John Henry songs and "legends". Well, I had no idea he was REAL-- flesh and blood! This book not only brought him alive for me, but the research and presentation was EXQUISITE. Dr Nelson -- in my eyes you have done a tremendous job of bringing alive not only John Henry, but the terrible wrongs done to thousands of African-American freedmen (and women) in Richmond, by the corrupt "Freedman's Bureau".
By reading this book, in my mind's eye AND ear, I could see the men and women who toiled in the often brutal conditions, to dig tunnels and build track. I could almost hear the weird and wonderful chants that helped lay the track and ease the brutal conditions and physical pain that these people, mostly (wrongfully convicted in many cases) convicts endured, usually until they dropped dead from the years of toil and/or silicosis.
Could that photograph of a John Henry (page 46) in Bealton VA (not that far from Richmond) really be him? Truth is stranger than fiction - perhaps we ARE looking into his smiling face. And one question I have-- how does the Smithsonian REALLY know which bones are his? (maybe I missed something)
The author's narrative, interspersed with highly pertinent photographs AND song verse kept me riveted to this very complex and highly interesting book. Although to some readers the book may seem to start out slow -- it's like a steam train -- it eventually picks up speed and keeps one fascinated.
The book's narrative gives great detail to that era in Richmond that John Henry lived, as well as the "white house" by the tracks (Federal Penitentiary where so many of these Freedmen and women were wrongfully incarcerated) and as it winds past John Henry the individual, it reveals the highly pertinent correlation with those railroad songs handed down by word-of-mouth and then collected and sung by the like of people such as Carl Sandburg, folk singer as well as poet, Pete Seeger, Burl Ives.
The book then shows how the John Henry story and ballads found their way into art, and life as well - expressed in the artwork and subject matter in Marvel Comix; expressed in the song and art of striking workers, the WPA, Karl Marx, the Communists and Socialists in America in the 1930's, the "radical and liberals of the 1940's", the Black Worker Protest Songs -- and more.
Of great interest also was the way the South incorporated (and the way it did NOT incorporate) black history regarding John Henry and other related Afro-American folk heroes and song into its school textbooks and library books back in the 40's and 50's.
I borrowed this book from the library -- but I was so impressed with it that I bought one for myself. I want to do my own research (in fact I'm playing some CD samples from Amazon right now, having to do with John Henry and word of mouth folk songs) on these ballads, and those who sang them as well as those who still sing them today.
I cannot find any fault with this book. The fact that I am now hooked on the John Henry ballad and all the history (past AND present) that goes with it is proof enough of this book's influence.
Does Dr. Nelson have a web site that relates to this book? I guess that's one more bit of research that I will undertake!! (I hope he does!)
PS - the "Gandy Dancer's Gal" on page 131 is a tremendous summation on canvas, of the strength and hardships, as well as the joys that were part of these track workers' lives.
And on my occasional travels on AMTRAK's Capitol Limited, when the train slowly winds thru some of those hand-hewn tunnels and past rough old forest growth, I look for the marks of 19th century tools on the rocks, and think back on those days of almost 150 years ago, when these men (and some women) worked side by side, sweating, hurting, working to their deaths, laboring for the railroad.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fascinating read!, July 16, 2007
As someone interested in history, the South, civil rights, and folk songs, I loved this book. The author starts by tracking down evidence to propose a candidate for the original John Henry who inspired the song. The author then fills in the details of what John Henry's life after arrest was probably like based on court, prison, and railroad records. Certainly, this part is speculative, as some reviewers have complained, but there is no reason a priori to expect that John Henry's experiences were significantly different from the norm. Besides, the discussion of the horrifying conditions the railroad builders and workers endured is eye-opening. Much of the latter portion of the book discusses how the song spread and the meaning it had at different times and to different groups. The author obviously did extensive research and creates a fascinating portrait of how a song mutates to suit current times.
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