Finding Autism in the Compositions of a 19th-Century Prodigy: Reconsidering “Blind Tom” Wiggins

In 1849, the fourteenth child of Black slaves Charity Greene and Mungo Wiggins was born blind. The following year, fve members of the Wiggins family—both parents, two boys, and a baby—were sold to the wealthy and well-educated Bethune family in Georgia. The Wiggins' baby son, Tom, clearly disabled, was thrown in at no charge with the purchase of the mother and father (Southall 1979). This free item—a blind, mentally incompetent child— soon became one of the most famous and well—paid personages of nineteenth—century stage entertainment. Thomas Greene Wiggins' ¹ legendary career as a pianist is a rich site for the exploration of disability as a contributing factor to cultural production.