MAITLAND’S ‘LITTLE BLACK BOY’ IS NOT A STATUE OF THE MYTHICAL JOCKO GRAVES BUT A HITCHING POST TO SELL TOBACCO

 

Maitland’s vomiting fountain hitching post, currently known as the ’Little Black Boy’, had no front page news when it was first placed on Maitland’s High Street in the late 1800s. It wasn’t hailed as an important statue. It wasn’t a statue (a civic monument) at all but a vomiting fountain hitching post. It was created as a fountain which vomited water into a horse trough but since Maitland was not connected to a water supply that function never operated. Local children valued the vomiting fountain hitching post so much that they put sticks and pipes in its mouth! Eventually the mouth was sealed.

It was the equivalent to a Ronald McDonald figure placed in McDonalds restaurants in the 1970s and 1980s. It was a sales gimmick to get more people to buy a product. The Ronald McDonald figure was used to get people to buy hamburgers. Maitland’s racist garden gnome was used to get people to buy American tobacco that was grown and harvested by black slaves. Slavery is the worst form of racism. Slaves were legally treated as property and completely stripped or their human rights. This was based solely on the slaves' 'race' / skin colour. It is very clear that the context of Maitland's racist garden gnome is tied to tobacco advertising. That tobacco was grown and harvested by black slaves in America. The object was situated outside a tobacconist store. Maitland's racist garden gnome exists because of the slavery associated with the American tobacco industry of the day. It's appearance on High Street in the late 1800s was in the context of racism within both Maitland and Australia.

Jocko Graves is a myth first written about in a children’s picture book by Earl Koger Sr (an insurance broker), The Legend of Jocko: The Boy Who Inspired George Washington” (1963). The black slave child never existed in time space history. There is no verifiable evidence that he ever existed. There is only distorted oral tradition of Jocko Graves incorrectly written down as fact 250 years after his supposed adventure took place. That means that Jocko Graves is not a hero as his supposed actions in the myth are also fictitious.

Waymon E Lefall (an American barber), first incorrectly linked the legend of Jocko Graves to the hitching post in his book, The Legend of Jocko: child Hero of the American Revolution (2003). Australian Jack Paten (known as country musician Drongo Jack), wrote to Waymon E Lefall and suggested a trip to Maitland. Lefall did so in 2009. Jocko:A Long Way from Home Down Under (2014) chronicles his visit to Maitland. Waymon E Lefall asserts, but provides no verification, that Maitland’s racist garden gnome is compared to the American Statue of Liberty, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the French Eiffel Tower. He incorrectly asserts that it “can be found in Maitland Australia. Where Jocko the first American child hero is located in the banks, city council office and on the curb side.” Maitland’s racist garden gnome is only found publicly at the Maitland Mutual building society main office in Maitland and not in all banks.

Neither Earl Koger Sr, Waymon E Lefall or Jack Paten (Drongo Jack) are historians with a university qualification in history. Don’t be fooled by history fans.

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The above adapted from my book Maitland’s Racist Garden Gnome (2026) available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats.