Blind Tom, the Black Pianist-Composer (1849-1908): Continually Enslaved

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Messengale, and Francois Sexalise.

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Tom's piano-playing behavior, both during practice and performance, was eccentric. His memory was something prodigious.

He never forgot anything. 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.

Blind Tom, the Black Pianist-Composer (1849-1908): Continually Enslaved

In , 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.

When Bethune returned home eight months later, his wife filed for divorce. The couple split up—John took Tom—but a bitter legal squabble ensued, with Eliza hounding John for financial support, a claim that the courts usually adjudicated in John's favor. After John Bethune died in a railway accident in , Tom was returned—over Eliza's objections—to the care of General Bethune now living in Virginia. Eliza sued General Bethune for ownership, with Tom's elderly mother Charity enjoined by Eliza's attorney as a party in the plaintiff's suit.

After a protracted custody battle in several courts, in August Tom was awarded to Eliza, who moved Tom back to New York. Charity accompanied them with the understanding that she would benefit financially from Tom's earnings. However, after it became apparent that Eliza did not intend to honor any financial obligations to Charity, Tom's mother returned to Georgia.

Tom continued performing and touring for a number of years under the management of Eliza and her attorney and later husband Albrecht Lerche. Tom was on tour in western Pennsylvania in May on the day of the Johnstown Flood , and rumor spread that he was among the casualties.

Despite his continued appearances on the U. In this phase of his career, Tom usually introduced himself onstage in the third person, imitating the pronouncements of his various managers from years past. He talked about his mental state with a characteristic lack of self-awareness. He had been diagnosed as non compos mentis by a doctor, and in his foggy netherworld the phrase was a matter of personal pride.

Blind Tom Wiggins

Willa Cather described the poignance of one such concert: 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.

Tom was still traveling, and presumably still performing, in The trainmen at that place were on strike against the railroads as part of the Pullman Strike , and Tom was stuck in town until July 9, when he continued eastward via the Colorado Midland Railroad. After being dogged by incessant legal challenges to her custodianship of Tom, Eliza took Tom off the concert circuit in the mids.

Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Blind Tom, the Black Pianist-Composer Continually Enslaved by Geneva Handy Southall. Blind Tom was the stage name of Thomas Greene Wiggins, a blind black pianist born into slavery in Noted by many musical authorities to be a musician of amazing skill, expressive playing, and incredible memory, he was nonetheless considered by his "admirers" still nearer to "animals" than other human beings, and was exploited by a series of whites after the Civil War Blind Tom was the stage name of Thomas Greene Wiggins, a blind black pianist born into slavery in Noted by many musical authorities to be a musician of amazing skill, expressive playing, and incredible memory, he was nonetheless considered by his "admirers" still nearer to "animals" than other human beings, and was exploited by a series of whites after the Civil War for their own financial comfort.

In this focused, consequential study, Geneva Southall reformulates the debate surrounding Blind Tom and expands its dimensions significantly. Southall asks questions about the talents of black performers and musicians, the relationship between black culture and economic prosperity, and the personal ability of talented black musicians to weather the dual stigmatization of racism and in Blind Tom's case physical disability to produce music not just worthy of remembrance, but of importance to the tradition of American arts from which they have been excluded.

Originally printed in cloth in She has examined a wealth of source material ranging from court records to concert reviews, and she writes with passion and considerable knowledge of the subject. Southall presents her most convincing argument in her examination of how Tom's freedom was denied. She leaves little doubt of the Bethunes' readiness to fight to retain their legal rights over the man who had become their primary source of income.

The author's refutation of the claims that Tom was an "idiot" is somewhat less assuring. His alleged idiocy was undoubtedly used to increase the public's interest in him as a phenomenon, but Southall weakens her own argument with numerous references to reports of his erratic, immature, and eccentric behavior. Her assertion that the pianist's ability to study with other musicians provided evidence of his mental competence proves only that he could communicate.

The fact that the Bethunes did little but profit from their prodigy also weakens her claim, as it indicates that they worked to develop his talent, even if it was for their own purposes.

Additional Information

Manipulative managers were probably not the exception during this time. To argue that Blind Tom would have accomplished more under other circumstances, one needs to compare his situation with that of his contemporaries; if white musicians with less talent were able to accomplish more, Southall should have discussed them. Her exclusion of the larger musical world is indeed regrettable. Southall excels on the rare occasions when she places Blind Tom's activities within the larger context of his time, as when she considers the effect of the economic crisis of The reader might wonder whether Southall's new publisher, Scarecrow Press, provided all of the editorial assistance it might have.

The illustrations are numerous but poorly reproduced and irregularly captioned.

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