Values in protest songs

After reading all of the protest songs i am able to point out different values that are present in them. When African Americans used to see protest songs while working it was usually to help pass the time away and also try to make the best out of the situation they had. This shows the value of what life meant to them. Even though they had a horrible situation and they really couldn't do much about it they still tried to make the best out of it. I think that shows a great deal of value for their lives because if they didn't care or have value for their life then they could have just not of worked or ran away or just not even care. For example, in "We Shall "Overcome" they sing about how some day they will all overcome everything they are going through and might actually be thought of as equal. They talk about how they will walk hand to hand which is say that segregation will be no more and they will finally be free. I think this also shows a lot of value towards life because when they were slaves they still didn't want to take the place of whites and beat up on the whites, but rather just become equal with everyone and have peace. This I think shows a great deal of respect and values to people and life. This is what i got from the reading of the songs and what values were taking place.

John Henry Values

In John Henry it tells a story about a young black boy who wants to be the best steel-driving man there ever was. He also doesn't want to do anything else, but steel-driving. He told his mamma that when he becomes a steel-driving man that that is where he is going to die, on the C & O Road. When you think about this the song already starts off with some values because John Henry is completely dedicated to being a steel-driving man. Also another point that helps support this is when he talks about how he will hammer himself to death. This helps show how he will do anything and everything to be the best at steel-driving. Also you cant tell that John Henry's values are a lot different from the white mans in this song because when they get started to do the duel between each other the white man just says he will grab his steel machine while John Henry talks about his trusty hammer and how he will work harder and better than the machine. This shows the values John Henry had over the white man because he was willing to put everything he had on the line and put every ounce of effort towards beating that machine. One last thing that you can see in the values that John Henry had was after the the steel-driving battle he dies because of all the effort that he has put into it. He works so hard for what he believed in that he just completely shut down and died. But before he died he asked for a glass of water and a women in a red dress gave it to him. This all shows how big his values were in life and how he would do anything for them no matter what it took.