John Joseph Eureka rebel to be honoured by US Ambassador

+19 votes
402 views

In the news today (https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/8100440/us-ambassador-caroline-kennedy-pays-tribute-to-overlooked-eureka-hero/ )

The United States' ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, expects to arrive at the at the White Hills cemetery in Bendigo where John Joseph died. Joseph was one of the 13 men charged high treason in the wake of what the authorities called riots.

To be found guilty could have meant the death penalty.

Joseph is featured with others facing high treason charges in an engraving that circulated in media reports of the time, but he is pictured to the back.

The authorities decided to stick him on trial first.

Some might wonder whether that is because he was an African American in an overtly racist society.

This was a place where a journalist covering the courts found it appropriate write that Joseph had "a stupid and vacant expression of countenance".

Another wrote that the 13 men were a "mongrel crew of German, Italian and Negro rebels".

Raffaello Carboni, the well respected leader and Italian expat who spent time with Joseph in custody awaiting the high treason trials, said that under his "dark skin" was a "warm, good, honest, kind, cheerful heart' and 'a sober, plain-matter-of-fact contented mind".

Maybe the lawyers wanted to get the treason trials rolling with what they thought would be an easy win.

If that was the case, the strategy was a complete flop.

A jury acquitted Joseph and his supporters carried him shoulder-high through a cheering, 10,000 strong crowd outside a Melbourne courtroom.

It had taken them half an hour to deliberate. The rest of the high treason trials ended in acquittals or abandonments.

Joseph died four years later.

Until now, there have been few clues the White Hills cemetery holds a man of Joseph's stature.

There are some opulent graves there, though not as much in the section he lies in.

WikiTree profile: John Joseph
in The Tree House by Anne Young G2G6 Pilot (115k points)
Wow, Anne! That's such an interesting story. Glad the case wasn't successful. Thanks so much for sharing it.
Thanks for sharing. Very interesting news.
Saw it on the ABC news tonight.

4 Answers

+8 votes
Thank you for sharing this story, Anne!
by Emma MacBeath G2G Astronaut (1.3m points)
+5 votes
Just a small point regarding the wording of part of this interesting story-as John James was Aboriginal Australian,yes he was Black but wasn’t “African American”!
by Mark Jobson G2G4 (4.5k points)
I have never heard it suggested John Joseph was Aboriginal - always African American
OK,I AM LIKELY MISTAKEN,I HAD ASSUMED,INCORRECTLY I SUPPOSE,THAT ALMOST NO AFRICAN AMERICANS MADE OT TO AUSTRALIA AT LEAST UNTIL WW II,

A further newspaper story on the history 

EUREKA HERO CELEBRATED

ONE of the heroes of Ballarat’s Eureka protests, John Joseph, is getting the recognition he deserves more than 100 years after his death. 

John Joseph was a pivotal figure in, and the first man to be tried for, the Eureka protests, a decisive moment in Australia’s push towards democracy. He was honoured by US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy at his grave in Bendigo’s White Hills cemetery yesterday. 

Senior history lecturer at Federation University David Waldron said John Joseph’s story was a reminder of the multicultural nature of Ballarat’s goldfields in the 1850s.

“The goldfields in Australia were an inherently diverse, multicultural place for people finding a shared Australian identity,” he said. 

Despite this, Mr Waldron said the connection between Ballarat and the African-American community is rarely discussed. 

There is even a sister city in California, now sadly deserted, named after Ballarat. 

Mr Waldron said many African-Americans came to the Australian goldfields where it was much safer than the US. 

“I think the fact that so many African-Americans came here looking for a new life and freedom, fleeing slavery in America was actually quite a heartening story for us,” he said. 

“I’ve got some letters in the paper from African-Americans who came to Ballarat saying things like, ‘In Australia, at least, you can give evidence, as a black man in the United States there wouldn’t be such evidence’.” 

But this didn’t mean there was no discrimination against African-American people.

….

+4 votes
Sorry for misstating his name,it was John Joseph,not John James.
by Mark Jobson G2G4 (4.5k points)
+5 votes
Thanks for sharing, Anne!
by Daniel Bamberger G2G6 Mach 4 (42.6k points)

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