Was John Henry Real

Probably not. There are no contemporary accounts of the race between man and machine that made John Henry famous. There were many black men driving steel for the railroads in the 1870s, and that name was common. One researcher found a person who claimed to have witnessed the contest at Leeds, Alabama, but that interview occurred 50 years after the song had been written. Another has found there was a Big Bend Tunnel (featured in the earliest versions of the song), a steam drill, and a man named John Henry, during the construction at Talcott, West Virginia. Another believes it could not have taken place at Big Bend, but it may have been at nearby Lewis Tunnel.

First of all,he had the competition in West Virginia.Second,John Henry is a real man.Well,was.He died.My music teacher tells me and my class that he was a real man and that competition was real.