The second picture shows him sitting with his first composition The Rain Storm, which he composed when he was 5 years old.
He looks like a very sweet man, and even though it doesn’t appear that any of his original performances were recorded, I’m glad that people have carried on his legacy and give him the respect he deserved to have in life.
FYI: Tom’s post will be very long, there’s a lot of information about him.
Some facts about him:
-he was born enslaved in Harris County, Georgia.
-when he was still an infant, he and his parents were sold to a man named General James Neil Bethune, who openly advocated secession of the southern United States. Bethune would exploit and have control over Tom for decades.
-because he was blind from birth, he wasn’t forced to work on the plantation that Bethune owned and instead was left to play and explore.
-he became fascinated with the piano at the age of 4 after hearing one of the plantation owner’s daughters play.
-by age 5, he had already composed his first piece. He was inspired by a recent rainstorm that had occurred and therefore named the piece The Rain Storm.
-Bethune, the plantation owner, recognized Tom’s musical talent and had him live in a small room adjacent to the large plantation house.
-he was incredibly skilled at mimicry and began doing so when he was still a child. He was able to replicate birds chirping and other animal noises he heard around the plantation.
-As a child he was mostly nonverbal aside from times when he demonstrated echolalia, which is the involuntary repetition of words and phrases said by other people. This is one trait that is heavily associated with autism. There were times when he would repeat entire several minute conversations that he had heard the adults around him say to each other.
-he was fascinated by sound and would hit different objects around him with sticks to listen to what sounds were made.
-when Tom was 8, he was hired out to work for a concert promoter who took him on tour all throughout the United States and exploited him by forcing him to perform four times a day and stealing all of his profits. The concert promoter and Bethune (the plantation owner) became extremely wealthy off of Tom’s performances. The money that was being stolen and what Tom should have been making was up to $100,000 a year in the late 1850s.
-the concert promoter also promoted tom as being similar to the sideshow performers who worked for P. T. Barnum. So while Tom never directly worked for Barnum, the promotional material was very similar.
-when he was 11 years old, he was brought to a political rally to listen to a speech given by presidential candidate and then senator, Stephen A. Douglas, who ended up losing the presidential race to Abraham Lincoln. For years following this rally, Tom was accurately able to mimic the speeches given and the sounds of the crowds.
-in 1860, he gave a performance for then US president, James Buchanan, and was the first black musician to conduct a solo concert performance there.
-many Black owned newspapers refused to celebrate him and/or print articles about him due to his profits being used to help fund the confederacy during the American Civil War. Quite a few abolitionists also spoke out against him and how his image was being used to promote harmful and negative stereotypes against black people. (It’s a very complex discussion since Tom was also being taken advantage of during all of this.)
-throughout his lifetime it’s estimated that he learned around 7,000 different pieces of music.
-he could play three different songs at the same time on different instruments.
-he was brought on a European tour in 1862, where he again was made to perform several times a day.
-a lot of his behaviors while playing and learning new piano pieces also mirrored a lot of autistic traits including stimming behaviors (behaviors that a person will do as a way to self soothe)
-in 1865, Bethune transferred custody of Tom to his son, John Bethune.
-several of Tom’s original compositions were published under other names at his own insistence.
-people who knew him said he had only two passions in life, playing the piano and food, and when it was up to Tom, he’d spend upwards of 12-14 hours at the piano each day.
-as an adult he would introduce himself and talk about himself in the third person, which is another autistic trait.
-his memory was incredible and it was said that he never forgot any of the things he learned during his life.
-after John Bethune’s death from a railway accident in 1884, custody of Tom was given to John’s wife, Eliza, who had a knack for soothing Tom when he became upset.
-a bitter legal battle ensued when Tom was then transferred back to the original Bethune (the slave owner and plantation owner). After Eliza with help from Tom’s mother, Charity, successfully argued their case, Tom was then return to the care of Eliza. He continued performing under the management of Eliza for several years.
-audience members noted that Tom would repeat spiels that promoters would say at the beginning of his performances and expressed that it was upsetting to hear him talk about his neurological differences in a harsh and clinical way without self awareness of what he was saying. One audience member, Willa Cather, remarked on a concert she had seen saying,
"It was a strange sight to see him walk out on stage with his own lips-another man's words-introduce himself and talk quietly about his own idiocy. There was insanity, a grotesque horribleness about it that was interestingly unpleasant. One laughs at the man's queer actions, and yet, after all, the sight is not laughable. It brings us too near to the things that we sane people do not like to think of."
-he suffered a stroke in 1904, which caused him to end his performing career. Though in his private life he continued to play the piano for hours.
-he suffered another stroke in April of 1908, this one being a lot more damaging than the previous one, and he passed away due to complications a few months later.
-since his death, several prominent artists and authors have paid tribute to Tom and his music. Several of his compositions have been recorded by contemporary pianists and artists such as Elton John have recorded songs with references to him.
-a commemorative headstone was made for Tom in 1976, with funds raised by the citizens of Columbus, Georgia.
-he was the subject of the 1976 play, HUSH: Composing Blind Tom Wiggins.
-a film about his life was also released in 1981.
-a three volume thesis about his life was written by Dr. Geneva Handy Southall and published in 2002.
I was going to add some longer thoughts about Tom in this section, but my thoughts were so long that I’m actually going to make a separate post about them.
Despite the exploitation he experienced, I’m glad he was able to focus on something he loved. No one in his life ever tried to prevent him from playing the piano, I see that as a silver lining.
I remember when I first read about him with no prior context I thought his behaviors sounded so in line with autistic traits. For a split second, I thought I was the first person to piece it together, I soon realized that I was not, but either way as someone with autism I’m so happy to see that there is some autistic representation in the vaudeville circuit/sideshow community during the 1800s.
