John Henry and Other Black Ballads of Reconstruction

Songs like John Henry, Stagger Lee, and Railroad Bill are iconic in American folk music

Mister Sule Greg C. Wilson explores the brief period when Black songwriters could write about badass Black men and women and legally sing about them. This is where “John Henry,” “Stagger Lee,” “Railroad Bill,” and all of those old songs that are classics of American folk music were born during this brief period between racial terror storms.

This slice considers one piece of Mr. Wilson’s contribution to Pushing the Rock. He also recorded an original song about Mister Homer Plessy, of Plessy vs. Ferguson fame, and interpreted “Jump Jim Crow,” the Black folk song appropriated into a racist minstrel routine.

In this clip from the upcoming Pushing the Rock, Mr. Wilson talks about and performs Black ballads of Reconstruction.

“Pushing the Rock” is a documentary we are finalizing about systemic racism in the United States and beyond. If you like what you see and are not already in the Browniac Fun Club, please jump into our puddle! It’s fun.

TRANSCRIPT:

After the Civil War, Black people were able to get a little bit of space in society — enough to express in public, or outside of the quarters, who they were. That's why, from that Reconstruction Era up until the ragtime era, or even a little bit beyond that, that's when you have the era of the Black ballad.

The first generation of Black songwriters born free

Sitting on his knee, he picked up his hammer and a little piece of steel — because this is the first generation not born in slavery.

Finding love, building fortunes

Now, in the post-slavery period, these Black people were finding love, creating families, making cities and fortunes, creating inventions, and being able to profit off of it — publishing, founding, and all this stuff — and it had to be celebrated in stories. Of course, there are lots of stories and a lot of material that we just have words of, but not examples of.

A lot of Black ballads survived because EuroAmerica liked them

Because the stuff that rose to the top — a lot of what survived — is the stuff that Euro-Americans became interested in. That's one reason that a lot of the Black ballads we do have are negative: like John Henry dies, you know, or somebody goes to jail or dies.

But there are other songs in the folklore that are positive. They didn't become big hits because they didn't fit the stereotype of the era. Everything had to filter through that to get to us.

Songs as a response to celebration

All those songs came up as a response to the Black ballads of those badass men and women who were being celebrated — in "Frankie and Albert," and Betty, and DuPree, and all these things. And then songs came in to try and turn everybody bad, make everybody seem stupid, and everything like that.