Which freed slave is the hero of a folk ballad about beating a steam drill with a hammer?

• A. Paul Bunyan
• B. Davy Crockett
• C. Daniel Boone
• D. John Henry

Answer: (D)

The idea here is recognizing the folkloric hero linked to a ballad about outworking a steam drill with a hammer. John Henry is the legendary freed slave who, in the song, takes on a steam-powered drill in a contest to prove that a human worker can match or exceed a machine’s pace. He hammers with all his might, wins in the race, and dies from the strenuous effort, turning his story into a powerful symbol of endurance, skill, and the dignity of labor in the face of industrial modernization.

The other names are well-known figures from different folk narratives, but they aren’t tied to this specific ballad. Paul Bunyan is the mythic giant of lumberjack tales, while Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone are frontier figures celebrated for exploration and wilderness skills. None of them are the hero of a tale about beating a steam drill with a hammer, which is why John Henry fits the prompt and theme exactly.