Lost Chapters
John Henry, Master of Machine: Gold Character
John Henry is a folk hero from a famous American ballad, and historians still debate whether one real man stands behind the story. In the legend, he races a steam-powered drill while a railroad tunnel is built, wins, and dies afterward. Folklorists connect it to the Big Bend Tunnel in West Virginia, built around 1870 to 1872.
- Cost
- 4 crystals
- Type
- Character · Free Spirit
- Power / Health
- 3 / 4
- Color
- Gold (Inventors & Industry)
- Rarity
- Rare
- Set
- Liberty & Lightning (Set 1)
Charge: Build 1 Steel Golem Token. If The Steam Engine is equipped to him, Build 1 more Steel Golem Token.
Gets +1/+0 for each other Free Spirit you control.
Steel-driving legend who challenged progress with persistence and paid the ultimate price.
The real history
The legend: John Henry is a steel driver, a worker who hammered steel bits into rock to make holes for explosives when a railroad tunnel was cut through a mountain. When a steam drill arrives to replace the human drivers, he challenges it to a race. He beats the machine, then dies from the effort. The tale lives on in a famous ballad.
The record: the story is usually tied to the Big Bend Tunnel, also called the Great Bend Tunnel, which the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad built between about 1870 and 1872 near the Greenbrier River in Summers County, West Virginia. The folklorist Louis W. Chappell spent years tracing the story and, in a 1933 study, placed it at Big Bend. The contractor, Captain W. R. Johnson, may have arranged a contest between a steam drill and his best hammer man, but the evidence is circumstantial. The railroad has said its records of the project were lost in a fire in Richmond.
Whether there was a real John Henry is unsettled. Some historians believe he was a steel driver who worked there, possibly born into slavery. Some scholars doubt that he existed. The original song was composed by an unknown musician, perhaps a fellow worker, and it grew into countless versions.
Because the evidence is thin, John Henry is best described as a legend that may be rooted in a real worker whose name and story were later reshaped.
Sources
- John Henry, West Virginia Encyclopedia, West Virginia Humanities Council
- John Henry, West Virginia Archives and History
In the game's story
In the game's invented story, a shard cracks in the railroad tunnels of the 1870s and catches something between the real man and the story. What comes through is a tall, broad, quiet man with a nine-pound hammer and no memory of anything but the work. He is warm and slow to speak, and he works with the Bridgecrew on the stone bridges of the Inkwash. He says he remembers refusing to let a machine tell him what he was worth, and the Bridgecrew sing his song every night.
How the card plays
John Henry, Master of Machine costs 4 crystals and is a 3/4 Rare Gold Free Spirit. His Charge text says: Build 1 Steel Golem Token, which is a 1/1 with Guard. If The Steam Engine is equipped to him, Build 1 more. He also gets +1/+0 for each other Free Spirit you control.
Charge with him every turn you safely can, because each attack gives you a free Guard blocker. Your field holds 5 characters, so watch the space the tokens take up.
The Steam Engine The Steam Engine adds +3/+3, refreshes him, and makes his Charge Build 2 tokens. The Circus The Circus gives Free Spirits +1/+1. Molly Pitcher, Cannoneer Molly Pitcher is a cheap Free Spirit, and every other Free Spirit you control adds +1/+0 to him.
- Playable in decks led by Nikola Tesla, and by any Traveler Leader whose colors include Gold.
- In the Tesla starter deck (1 copy). Deck code:
LC2-BV8BYAFhAWICYwFkAWUCZgFnAWgBaQFqAWsCbAFtAm4BbwFwAXEBcgFzAnQBdQF2AXcBeAJ5AnoBewF8AX0BfgF_AXiK - A deck holds up to 3 copies of this card.
Questions about John Henry
Did John Henry really beat the steam drill?
In the legend he does, then dies from the effort. In history, the contractor may have arranged a contest between a steam drill and his best hammer man, but the evidence is circumstantial and the project records are missing.
Card art
The standard version of John Henry, Master of Machine. The Full Art above is a rare version that can appear in packs.
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