The Exploitation and Discrimination of Thomas Wiggins

Jeremy Boss

Beginnings

Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins was an incredible composer and musician who traveled the world and experienced fame at a level that most people would never have even dreamed of in the 19^th century. This might sound like a dream come true, or a fairytale describing the riches one may possess both financially and in one’s ego from becoming a world-famous musician. However, this post intends to shine the light on something which is much darker and much more depraved, which concerns the opinions and the mindsets of white culture regarding race and disability in the 19^th century. Whether Thomas Wiggins performed in his own country of the United States of America, or across the Atlantic in Europe, he constantly faced exploitation, racism, bigotry, and ableism (which is the act of discriminating against someone with a disability).

Thomas Wiggins was born near Columbus, Georgia, in 1849. The middle of the century in the United States was fueled by racism which divided many of its citizens on the topics of slavery and freedom. It was a powder keg of emotion, which was not an ideal place to be for an African American, let alone an African American child born with disabilities.

Wiggins was born into slavery, and a man named Wiley Jones who owned his parents held Wiggins’ future in his hands. It could be argued that Wiggins faced his first dose of racism and ableism before he even started his life and took his first breath. According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, Wiggins’ mother, Charity Wiggins, asked Jones’s daughter Valeria to name her newborn, which “may have been a canny strategy to prevent Jones from killing the baby, who was blind, because disabled slave children were considered a burden” (Chicago 17^th Edition). It seems the strategy succeeded, and Jones kept Thomas until the following year when he sold the entire family to General James Neil Bethune. No one could ever know how Thomas Wiggins’ life may have been different if Wiley Jones had kept the Wiggins family, but this transaction marked a lifelong path for Wiggins which was destined for exploitation through racism, bigotry, and ableism.

The Bethune Family

At the young age of two years old, Wiggins showed a great interest in playing piano and it was determined that Wiggins would have music lessons which were commissioned by Bethune, his new slave master. Geneva Southall mentions in her article, “Blind Tom: A Misrepresented and Neglected Composer-Pianist,” that it was quite common for many slave owners to attempt to develop musical skills in their slaves in hopes of making an extra income from their slaves, as well as hope to raise their social standing within the plantation community and society in general. These tactics used on Wiggins only heightened the beginning of a lifelong path of exploitation that unfortunately awaited the young child.

By the age of four Wiggins was often being exhibited by his owner in Columbus, and at the age of five Wiggins composed his first piece for the piano. At this time of the exhibitions, Wiggins would perform pieces by Bach, Mozart, and Chopin, among other famous composers of the period, and at times he would perform some of his own compositions. Late in Wiggins’ life he would be promoted much like a freakshow, including a part of his act called the “audience challenge.” This is where Wiggins would have an audience member perform a piece on stage and immediately following this, Wiggins would play the section back precisely, note for note.

In May of 1865, Bethune issued a business contract regarding the seven-year old’s performances. This contract was written to allow Wiggins’ parents “$500 a year and a house; Wiggins would get $240 a year and 10 percent of Bethune’s profits from Wiggins’ performances” (Chicago 17^th Edition). This type of contract roughly equaled $12,500 per year for Wiggins' parents and roughly $6,000 per year for Wiggins in 2021-dollar values. It makes an excellent example of how the Bethune family took advantage of their situation to extract profits from their “property.” In some years, Wiggins brought in up to $100,000 per year (in 2021 dollars) due to his touring, which ended up being quite lucrative for the Bethune family under this contract.

It has not been fully determined if Wiggins’ parents had proper legal representation, or if they knew entirely what they were signing in this agreement because they were likely illiterate, which Whitney Womack Smith discusses in her article, “’Blind Tom’ Abroad: Race, Disability, and Transatlantic Representations of Thomas Wiggins.” This also becomes more apparent from a quote made by Wiggins’ mother, Charity Wiggins, before her passing in 1902: “They Stole him from me…When I was in New York I signed away my rights. They won’t let Thomas come to see me, and I’m not allowed to see him” (Chicago 17^th Edition). Over the years there were many legal battles over the guardianship of Wiggins. Later legal outcomes gave the guardianship to John Bethune, Bethune’s son and later Eliza Bethune, Bethune’s daughter as mentioned in “Tom Wiggins” in the Encyclopedia of World Biography Online. This guardianship and management allowed the Bethune family to exploit and promote Wiggins as a “useful idiot,” “vacant receptacle,” or any other way they saw fit to extract profits from this extraordinary talent.

Racism, Bigotry, and Exploitation in America

The civil war in America sparked a great divide within the country on the subject of racism. Much of white culture in the South at this time felt that slavery should continue, and Bethune felt no different. In fact, Bethune made sure that Wiggins would perform exclusively in the South during the civil war. Bethune also strategically used one of Wiggins’ most famous compositions, titled “The Battle of Manassas,” as a means of propaganda, and “Tom’s performances were used to raise money for the Confederacy” (Krentz, 2005, 553). There are many levels of exploitation within the management of Wiggins’ career during this time. Bethune in a way was seemingly exploiting Wiggins against his own interests as a person of color by funding the Confederacy through his own performances. Wiggins may have had some cognitive disabilities, so one cannot say for sure that he was aware of the impact that his performances had concerning funding the Confederacy, but with all things being considered the intentions of Bethune speaks volumes.

Even after the Civil War ended in America, there was still systemic racism and bigotry not only in the South, but in the Northern states as well. This is something that was and still is ingrained in American ideologies. After the Civil War, Wiggins was still under the guardianship of Bethune even though slavery had ended. This was due to legal battles that drew out, eventually claiming Wiggins not to be fit for self-ownership because of his disabilities. After the legal battles ended, Bethune started expanding Wiggins’ performances into the Northern states but there are many reviews of Wiggins that show racism, bigotry, and ableism were still very prevalent. One example of this is from 1866, of a writer from the Albany Argus where the review states that African Americans are “an unintellectual race…the negro does not understand classical music…[Tom was] one of the most incomprehensible facts of the time” (quoted in Krentz, 2005, 553). Another review that highlights this theme comes from a North Carolina reporter who wrote, “This poor blind boy is cursed with but little of human nature; he seems to be an unconscious agent acting as he is acted on, and his mind is a vacant receptacle where Nature stores her jewels to recall them at her pleasure” (quoted in Krentz, 2005, 554). The idea that this performance could not be coming from Wiggins himself, but from a higher power or entity who is in control of him, only helps to strengthen a narrative that ableism was a strong component in many of the reviewers’ conceptions that came with Wiggins’ performances. Another notable review came from Mark Twain in 1896 when he wrote:

All of the schooling of a life-time could not teach a man to do this wonderful thing, I suppose-but this blind, uninstructed idiot of nineteen does it without any trouble. Some archangel cast out of upper Heaven like another Satan, inhibits this course casket; and he comforts himself and makes his prison beautiful with thoughts and dreams and memories of another time and another existence that fire this dull cloud…[I]t is not Blind Tom that does these wonderful things and plays this wonderful music-it is the other party (quoted in Krentz, 2005, 554).

Even as one of the fathers of American literature, Mark Twain was not immune to writing backhanded comments regarding race, bigotry, and ableism. The remarks he makes about Wiggins not being able to perform these tasks by himself is remarkably racist and bigoted. The racist notion that African Americans are inferior to white people, and that they would need help from a higher power to perform at this level is nothing more than white supremacy being spewed. Also, his mentions of “course casket” and “dull cloud” give an example of Twain's utterly relentless discriminatory ideas of people with disabilities and color. It would be interesting to hear how Mark Twain thought about the accomplishments of white performers inside the musical cannon of the 19^th century; did they also require the help of entities outside of their control? Or did they accomplish these feats on their own?

Krentz provides further reviews that offer even more belittling, derogatory-filled slurs regarding Wiggins and his race and disabilities. I decided to not post those because I feel that I have already demonstrated the extent of racism, bigotry, and ableism within the reviews and views of some of the white culture within America in the 19^th century.

Wiggins seated next to General James N. Bethune

Wiggins Travels to Europe

In Europe, many citizens were fascinated with the idea of American slavery in the 19^th century. Part of this intrigue was spurred by the release of the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852. As much as white culture in Europe was fixated on the anti-slavery movement happening in the United States and abroad in the 19^th century, there were obvious hypocrisies happening within European society concerning racism and ableism. In July of 1866, Thomas Wiggins embarked on his first European tour and one might have thought that the discriminatory practices Wiggins once faced would have been left in America. Even though “in the United States, his race kept him from being accepted and respected as a musician, in Britain his disabilities relegated him to ‘freak’ status. He did not enjoy the freedoms and privileges afforded to other African-Americans abroad” (Smith, 2016, 165). Smith also goes on to imply that the black audiences never seemed to fully accept him because of his disabilities, in his portrayal of being a token of an oppressive past. It seems that Blind Tom did not fit the embodiment of the ‘New Negro’.

During the European tour Wiggins was paraded around many kinds of venues, some being held for “sophisticated audiences at the Queen’s Concert Room, in Hanover Square…[b]ut his public appearances were at St. James Hall, the home of the wildly popular Christy’s Minstrels - the most famous blackface performers of the era - and at Egyptian Hall, a popular freak show venue” (Smith, 2016,169). It seems that while slavery was abolished in Britain in 1772, the audiences didn’t feel too uncomfortable with the way in which Bethune chose to exploit Wiggins in such racist and demeaning theaters which promoted freak shows.

Backhanded compliments were also used in Europe, as they were in the United States. Smith highlights one such comment which placed Wiggins “squarely in the ranks of freaks, claiming that ‘we would class [Wiggins] not so much with musicians as with the many persons who otherwise idiotic, achieve astounding feats in the way of arithmetical calculations’” (Smith, 2016, 170).

Advertisement for a concert by Wiggins at the Egyptian Hall in London, 1866

Unable to Overcome

Thomas Wiggins was unable to escape the racism, bigotry, ableism, or exploitation present throughout his life. Even after the Civil War in the United States he was never seen as merely a competent composer, performer, or musician alone. After traveling abroad, the white culture in Europe who ended slavery almost a hundred years previous fell to the same bigotry, racism, and ableism that the United States fell into. One can only imagine what kind of life and status Wiggins would have had in societies that didn’t judge the musician by his disabilities or race. I feel that today we would look at Wiggins in a more accepting light, but we still have much more work to do as a society concerning this matter. One of the simplest things we can do is consider learning from our past and recognize what happened in our history so that we can try to correct it going forward.

Bibliography

Cheng, William. "Staging Overcoming: Narratives of Disability and Meritocracy in Reality Singing Competitions." Journal of the

Society for American Music 11, no. 2 (2017): 184–214.

Krentz, Christopher. "A 'Vacant Receptacle'? Blind Tom, Cognitive Difference, and Pedagogy." PMLA 120, no. 2 (2005): 552-57.

Rutter, Emily Ruth. "The Creative Recuperation of 'Blind Tom' Wiggins in Tyehimba Jess's Olio and Jeffery Renard Allen's Song of the

Shank." MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S. 44, no. 3 (2019): 175-196.

Smith, Whitney Womack. "'Blind Tom' Abroad: Race, Disability, and Transatlantic Representations of Thomas Wiggins" Journal of

Transatlantic Studies, 14:2, (2016): 164-175.

Southall, Geneva. "Blind Tom: A Misrepresented and Neglected Composer-Pianist." The Black Perspective in Music 3, no. 2 (1975):

141-59.

"Tom Wiggins." In Encyclopedia of World Biography Online. Vol. 37. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2017. Gale In Context: Biography (accessed

February 21, 2021).

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