What is a tar-boy? *antique statuette*?

Just watched this program about an antique praisal kind of thing... They tell people how much different antiques and oddities are worth. Anyway they had this small statue, looked like a small black boy. The host said these statues used to be known as tarbabies but it's not a politically correct term so they just call them tar-boys now. Is anyone familiar with them and can share some background on them? What country do they come from?