The history of lawn jockeys and garden gnomes is long and complicated, intertwined with themes of race, culture, and historical interpretation. These lawn ornaments, popular in the United States and Canada, have sparked considerable debate and discussion due to their complex and sometimes controversial origins.
When you see one, he raises the question, especially if he is black: Should he be there? What's his story?
To some, particularly African Americans, the lawn jockey is a pint-size monument to repugnant stereotypes, a holdover from the days of slavery and Jim Crow, an artifact of racial prejudice alongside Aunt Jemima.
But others, including some historians and collectors of African American memorabilia, say the lawn jockey has been misunderstood. They say his origins can be traced to a legend of faithful duty during the American Revolution. They say he guided slaves to freedom on the underground railroad.
The Lawn Jockey: Origins and Symbolism
A lawn jockey is a statue depicting a man in jockey clothes, intended to be placed in front yards as hitching posts, similar to those of footmen bearing lanterns near entrances and gnomes in gardens.
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The lawn ornament, popular in certain parts of the United States and Canada in years past, was a cast replica, usually about half-scale or smaller, generally of a man dressed in jockey's clothing and holding up one hand as though taking the reins of a horse.
Several styles have been produced, with the most prolific being a shorter version commonly known as "Jocko" and a taller version known as "cavalier spirit".
- The earlier "Jocko" design usually depicts the right arm raised and was styled as a racist caricature of a young black boy, often with exaggerated features, such as big eyes with the whites painted in; large lips painted red; a large, flat nose and curly hair.
- The "cavalier spirit" design usually depicts the left arm raised and uses the likeness of a white young man, lacking the minstrelsy features of its Jocko counterpart.
The cartoonish young black boy (Joko), often with exaggerated features, such as big eyes; large lips painted red; a large, flat nose, curly hair and with skin painted gloss black, became racially insensitive by the late 20th century. Many remaining samples have now been repainted using pink paint for the skin while the original sculpture’s exaggerated features remain.
The Jocko Graves Legend
Apocryphal accounts of the figure's origin portray the statue as representing a hero of African-American history and culture. There is a common story that black lawn jockeys are a recreation of a black boy who served George Washington in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
According to the River Road African American Museum the figure originated in commemoration of heroic dedication to duty: the “lawn jockey” actually has its roots in the tale of one Jocko Graves, an African-American youth who served with General George Washington at the time that he crossed the Delaware to carry out his surprise attack on British forces at Trenton, NJ.
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The story goes that a 9-year-old New Jersey farm boy named Jocko sneaked out of his house to find his father, a freed slave who had enlisted with George Washington's army. The boy wound up in an encampment on Christmas Eve, before Washington's crossing of the Delaware.
The General thought him too young to take along on such a dangerous attack, so left him on the Pennsylvania side to tend the horses and to keep a light on the bank for their return.
So the story goes, the boy, faithful to his post and his orders, froze to death on the river bank during the night, the lantern still in his hand. The General was so much moved by the boy’s devotion to his duty that he had a statue sculpted and cast of him, holding the lantern, and had it installed at his Mount Vernon estate. He called the sculpture “The Faithful Groomsman.”
The most frequently-cited source for the story is Kenneth W. Goings in “Mammy and Uncle Mose” (Indiana University Press), though he regards it as apocryphal. The story was told as well in a 32 page children’s book by Earl Kroger Sr., “Jocko: A Legend of the American Revolution.” Moreover, there is a 13-page typescript titled “A Horse for the General: The Story of Jocko Graves” by Thomas William Halligan in the archives of the Alaska Pacific University/ University of Alaska-Anchorage consortium library.
Earl Koger Sr., an African American publisher and insurance executive from Baltimore, recorded the tale in a 1976 illustrated children's book, "Jocko: A Legend of the American Revolution."
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Koger's book notes that Washington was so moved by the boy's sacrifice that he ordered a likeness of Jocko placed on his lawn.
However, neither the Revolutionary War nor the Civil War legends are corroborated by historical records. Mount Vernon’s librarian Ellen McCallister Clark wrote in a letter to Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library: “No record of anybody by the name of Jocko Graves, nor any account of somebody freezing to death holding Washington’s horses, exists in the extensive historical record of the time.” Nor do any of the many historical inventories and descriptions of Washington’s estate mention any such statue.
Despite this, the legacy of Jocko Graves persists, with some viewing the lawn jockey as a symbol of his bravery and loyalty.
Underground Railroad Connections
Another story, popularized by American historian Charles L. Blockson, suggests that lawn jockeys were used to signal escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad.
Blockson also came across the Revolutionary War legend of Jocko.
History of garden gnomes - História dos gnomos de jardim - История садовых гномов (Google Doodle)
Lawn jockeys, or groomsmen, are mostly a rural phenomenon in an increasingly urban world. But Russell L. Adams, chairman of the Afro-American studies department at Howard University, said their enormous iconic power cuts across time and place.
The story says that District Judge Benjamin Piatt had tied a flag to a lawn jockey as a signal to fleeing slaves that it was safe to stop there.
According to this narrative, the position of the statue's arms and the colors of ribbons or clothing indicated the safety and direction for escaping slaves. It was thought that red colors indicated danger and green colors meant it was safe to stop.
However, stories about the Underground Railroad using lawn jockeys as signals are rendered suspect by the fact that red and green as signal colors meaning “stop” and “go” (or “danger” and “safe”) were standardized by railway signals during the World War I era (Everything2.com.).
Despite the lack of concrete evidence, the idea of lawn jockeys as symbols of hope and freedom during a dark period in American history continues to resonate with some.
The Decline and Revival of Lawn Jockeys
By the end of the 19th century, blacks dominated the "sport of kings," with black jockeys having won 15 of the Kentucky Derby's first 28 runnings, and the lawn jockey had become a totemic figure.
Over time, the stooped lawn jockeys, often with cartoonish features, gave way to more erect, realistic figures -- a change that tracked advances by blacks in American society, Adams said.
But as the civil rights era began, lawn jockeys seemed like embarrassing throwbacks, and many people got rid of them. Only in recent years has interest in them increased, including among African American collectors.
Contemporary Perspectives
These days, lawn jockeys are offered for sale on eBay and other sites. A small number of companies still make them.
About a year ago, Mark Johnson created an Ontario-based company, Lawnjockey.com, to manufacture them after seeing them on eBay and finding that almost no one was making new ones.
Johnson said he ships about 200 a year to Canada, the United States and "all over the world." His black "Jockos" go for $145 each ($99 unpainted).
What the figure means, of course, still depends on who is looking at it.
Commentators online and in print have made a connection between the lawn jockey and the Ryan Howard garden gnome. Norment says as a black statue dressed in Phillies red and white, intended as a lawn decoration, it’s notably similar, even if Howard’s face is not a caricature.
In media and popular culture, lawn jockeys sometimes appear as a prop or conversation piece, in most cases merely trivial and non-notable in nature, although notable racial connotations are often associated with earlier examples of lawn jockeys versus more modern contemporary examples.
Sometimes a reference to a lawn jockey is used to illustrate a racist or race-based point in popular culture.
Lawn jockeys are often associated with wealthy white American families in popular culture, either for satire and sociopolitical symbolism, or for legitimate aesthetic appeal.
The Broader Context: Garden Gnomes and Cultural Symbols
To fully appreciate the complexities surrounding lawn jockeys, it's helpful to consider the broader context of garden ornaments and their cultural significance. Garden gnomes, plaster saints, and other lawn decorations also carry symbolic weight and evoke specific associations.
After World War II (with early references, in ironic use, from the late 1930s) the diminutive figurines introduced as lawn ornaments during the 19th century came to be known as garden gnomes.
The image of the gnome changed further during the 1960s to 1970s, when the first plastic garden gnomes were manufactured. These gnomes followed the style of the 1937 depiction of the seven dwarves in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Disney.
This "Disneyfied" image of the gnome was built upon[citation needed] by the illustrated children's book classic Gnomes (1976), in the original Dutch Leven en werken van de Kabouter, by author Wil Huygen and artist Rien Poortvliet, followed in 1981 by The Secret Book of Gnomes.
These figures, like lawn jockeys, can be seen as reflections of cultural values, historical narratives, and societal attitudes.
Ultimately, the interpretation of lawn jockeys and garden gnomes remains subjective and deeply personal. These objects can serve as reminders of a complicated past, prompts for important conversations, and opportunities for greater understanding.
