John Henry is based on a real man, though his story has been embellished with time, and some of the details are uncertain. Most historians, at least in WV, hav

John Henry is based on a real man, though his story has been embellished with time, and some of the details are uncertain. Most historians, at least in WV, have little doubt that he did exist. If you look at the Wikipedia page on Tall Tales, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_tale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_tale, it even has him marked as being based on a historical indivdual.