Blind Tom Wiggins - Wikipedia. Head and shoulders portrait of Blind Tom Wiggins. Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (May 2. June 1. 4, 1. 90.

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Test your knowledge with amazing and interesting facts, trivia, quizzes, and brain teaser games on MentalFloss.com. Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (May 25, 1849 – June 14, 1908, age 59) was an African American musical prodigy on the piano. He had numerous original compositions. 1. The Astor Bloodline FDR and Lady Astor - 2 socialists DIFFICULTY IN DETERMINING THE FACTS. ORIGIN OF THE FAMILY & its NAME THE FAMILY IN EUROPE. · Find out more about the history of 19th Amendment, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com.

African Americanmusicalprodigy on the piano. He had numerous original compositions published and had a lengthy and largely successful performing career throughout the United States. During the 1. 9th century, he was one of the best- known American performing pianists. Although he lived and died before autism was described, he is now regarded as an autistic savant.

Early life[edit]Wiggins was born on the Wiley Edward Jones Plantation in Harris County, Georgia. Blind at birth, he was sold in 1. Charity and Domingo "Mingo" Wiggins, to a Columbus, Georgialawyer, General James Neil Bethune.[1] Bethune was "almost the pioneer free trader" in the United States and "the first [newspaper] editor in the south to openly advocate secession".[2] General Bethune renamed the child Thomas Greene Bethune or Thomas Wiggins Bethune (according to different sources). Because Tom was blind, he could not perform work normally demanded of slaves, his owners originally wanted to kill him since he had no economic value to them. Instead, he was left to play and explore the Bethune plantation. At an early age, he showed an interest in the piano after hearing the instrument played by Bethune's daughters.

By age four he reportedly had acquired some piano skills by ear, and gained access to the piano. By age five Tom reportedly had composed his first tune, The Rain Storm, after a torrential downpour on a tin roof.[3] With his skills recognized by General Bethune, Tom was permitted to live in a room attached to the family house, equipped with a piano. Neighbor Otto Spahr, reminiscing about Tom in the Atlanta Constitution in 1.

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The Ballad of Blind Tom, by Deirdre O'Connell), observed: "Tom seemed to have but two motives in life: the gratification of his appetite and his passion for music. I don't think I exaggerate when I state that he made the piano go for twelve hours out of twenty- four."[4]As a child, Tom began to echo the sounds around him, repeating accurately the crow of a rooster or the singing of a bird.

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If he was left alone in the cabin, Tom was known to begin beating on pots and pans or dragging chairs across the floor in an attempt to make any kind of noise. By the age of four, Tom was able to repeat conversations up to ten minutes in length but was barely able to adequately communicate his own needs, resorting to grunts and gestures.

Another example of Tom's extraordinary abilities was shown after he was taken to a political rally in 1. Democratic presidential candidate Stephen Douglas. Years after he attended this speech, he was still able to orate it while capturing the tone and mannerisms of Douglas. Additionally, he was able to recreate the heckles and cheers of the crowd with remarkable precision. Bethune hired out "Blind Tom" from the age of eight years to concert promoter Perry Oliver, who toured him extensively in the US, performing as often as four times a day and earning Oliver and Bethune up to $1.

Blind Tom undoubtedly the nineteenth century's most highly compensated pianist".[7] General Bethune's family eventually made a fortune estimated at $7. Blind Tom.[8] Oliver marketed Tom as a “Barnum- style freak” advertising the transformation from animal to artist.

In the media, Tom was frequently compared to a bear, baboon, or mastiff. Bethune hired professional musicians to play for Tom, who could faithfully reproduce their performances, often after a single listening. Eventually he learned a reported 7,0. Professional career[edit]There are conflicting historical accounts of Blind Tom's first public performance, some indicating he was as young as three. Watch Approaching The Unknown Online Free 2016. One account from 1. Newspaper reviews and audience reactions were favorable, prompting General Bethune to undertake a concert tour with Tom around their home state of Georgia.

Tom later toured the South with Bethune or accompanied by hired managers, though their travels and bookings were sometimes hampered by the North- South hostilities which were drawing the nation towards Civil War. In 1. 86. 0, Blind Tom performed at the White House before President. James Buchanan; he was the first African- American to give a command performance at the White House. Mark Twain attended many of Blind Tom's performances over several decades and chronicled the proceedings. On- and off- stage, Tom often referred to himself in the third person (e. Tom is pleased to meet you").

His piano recitals were augmented by other talents, including uncanny voice mimicry of public figures and nature sounds. He also displayed a hyperactive physicality both onstage and off. A letter written in 1. Watch Halloween 5 Online Metacritic.

North Carolina described some of Tom's eccentric capabilities: "One of his most remarkable feats was the performance of three pieces of music at once. He played 'Fisher's Hornpipe' with one hand and 'Yankee Doodle' with the other and sang 'Dixie' all at once. He also played a piece with his back to the piano and his hands inverted." At concerts, skeptics attempted to confirm if Tom's performance replications were mere trickery; their challenge took the form of having Tom hear and repeat two new, uncirculated compositions. Tom did so perfectly.

The "audience challenge" eventually became a regular feature of his concerts. Supposedly, Tom's talents profited the Confederacy during the Civil War. His most famous song, "The Battle of Manassas," is the story of the Confederate Army's 1.

Battle of Bull Run. As a result, many black newspapers refused to celebrate him, pointing out that he served to reinforce negative stereotypes about African- American individuals and that he was only a source of profit for slaveholders. In 1. 86. 6, at age 1. Tom was taken on a European concert tour by General Bethune, who collected testimonials about Tom's natural talents from composer- pianist Ignaz Moscheles and pianist- conductor Charles Hallé.

These were printed in a booklet, “The Marvelous Musical Prodigy Blind Tom," and used to bolster Tom's international reputation. In 1. 87. 5, General Bethune transferred management of Blind Tom's professional affairs to his son John Bethune, who accompanied Tom on tour around the U. S. for the next eight years. Beginning in 1. 87.

John brought Blind Tom to New York each summer. While living with John in a boarding house on the Lower East Side, Tom added to his repertoire under the tutelage of Joseph Poznanski, who also transcribed new compositions by Tom for publication. Many of these were, at Tom's insistence, published under such pseudonyms as Professor W. F. Raymond, J. C. Beckel, C. T. Messengale, and Francois Sexalise. Tom's piano- playing behavior, both during practice and performance, was eccentric. We had two pianos in one room," Poznanski told the Washington Post in 1.

O'Connell's biography). I would play for him and he would get up, walk around, stand on one foot, pull his hair, knock his head against the wall, then sit down and play a very good imitiation of what I had played with additions to it.

His memory was something prodigious. He never forgot anything." This led some critics to dismiss Tom as a novelty act, a "human parrot." Novelist Willa Cather, writing in the Nebraska State Journal, called Tom "a human phonograph, a sort of animated memory, with sound producing power."[4]John Steinbeck has compared the main character in his short story, “Johnny Bear” to Blind Tom. No original recordings of Blind Tom appear to exist. His sheet music is available, but only a small number of musicians have ever recorded his original songs.

Custody battle[edit]In 1. John Bethune married his landlady, Eliza Stutzbach, who had demonstrated a knack for mollifying Tom's sometimes volatile temperament. However, shortly after their marriage, John Bethune embarked on an extended tour of the U. S. with Tom, in effect abandoning Eliza. When Bethune returned home eight months later, his wife filed for divorce.