- Thomas Wiggins was one of the major musical figures of the 19th century.

A child prodigy, he wrote his first composition at the age of five.

But he was Black, blind and enslaved, otherwise he might be considered like Mozart.

[Lively piano melody] - The first Black superstar performer in America, he was sort of the Michael Jackson of his era.

Imagine if he had been born 100 years later.

[Tender piano] [Lachi]: One in four American adults have a disability, and I'm one of them.

I'm Lachi, I'm a recording artist and disability culture advocate, and I'm here to introduce you to disabled renegades.

♪♪ I face each day as a renegade ♪ [Gentle, serene piano melody] [Lachi]: Thomas Wiggins was born into slavery in Georgia in 1849.

He was sold with his entire family at auction at age one to James Neil Bethune, a lawyer, newspaper editor, and vocal champion of the secession of the South.

Enslavers deemed baby Wiggins worthless, as he was born blind.

He was tossed into the sale at no charge.

When just a young boy of two or three, it's said that young Wiggins snuck into the Bethune parlor to play their piano.

Bethune witnessed Wiggins' talents and realized he could make that worthless child valuable after all.

- The sight of a piano makes me think about my great-great-great-great uncle, Thomas Wiggins, and the magic that he would make.

[Page rustling] It's sad to think about how he was taken advantage of.

He was exploited.

[Dynamic, energetic piano melody] - His debut was in 1857, so he would've been about eight years old.

Pretty soon, he was actually, and it's a shocking word to say, he was leased out.

[Bright, somber piano melody] [Lachi]: Young Wiggins' childhood turned into an unending performance tour.

He was billed as "Blind Tom," the blind Negro boy pianist, and became the highest grossing, most ticketed act of his time.

He played prominent venues in the U.S. and toured Europe.

From concert halls in Paris, to exclusive forums in London.

In 1860, at age 11, Thomas Wiggins became the first Black artist to perform at the White House.

- One could call Wiggins a Romantic Era composer.

But, he stood out from all that.

- He had a knack for creating musical imagery with his pieces, really unique things to his music.

[Serene, hopeful melody] [Pages rustling] - What makes Thomas Wiggins' music special was its openness to the world.

[Energetic, contemplative piano, waves crashing] He could hear and record everything.

He had an audiographic memory.

Once he heard something, he was like Mozart.

He could reproduce it, he could play it.

He wrote pieces based on imitations of plantation life, slave life, modern urban life.

[Light, methodical piano] [Sewing machine clicking] [Jaunty piano melody] [Lachi]: Shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861, young Wiggins composed his recreation of the conflict, also known as the Battle of Manassas.

[Cannon booming] Bethune used the profits from "The Battle of Manassas" to fund the Confederate war effort in support of slavery.

It became Wiggins' most famous piece.

In 1863, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all enslaved people.

But to ensure the profits kept rolling in, Bethune had Wiggins prosecuted under an "inquisition of idiocy" and placed under his guardianship.

[Captivating, expressive piano melody] - Under the era of enslavement, an enslaved person was functionally considered under the guardianship of the slave holder.

And so when Wiggins was placed into a guardianship, it quite literally extended the experience of enslavement over his life.

- He was used as a source of income in a very different way than most slaves who were also Black.

He was very profitable.

[Lachi]: In the course of his career, Wiggins earned the Bethune family the largest fortune ever attained by a pianist at the time.

The equivalent of over $32 million today.

- In recent years, this topic hit national news because of the case of Britney Spears.

[Crowd]: Free Britney!

Just as Spears was not entitled legally to access or exercise any control over any of her earnings, so too Wiggins was not permitted under guardianship to exercise any amount of control about any aspect of his finances or his work.

- Now, his abilities would be viewed differently.

A lot of historians are now suspecting that he was possibly autistic.

- Wiggins was described in many different sources as having behavior and characteristics that were perceived at the time as being unusual and atypical.

He frequently would leap from the piano bench.

He would vocalize alongside playing.

- If you take him out of the context of the 19th century, put him into the modern era, maybe some of his wild movements and all these things would be considered cool today, and not just the product of someone who had a disability.

- Recognizing disability in historical context is a very fraught conversation.

Simply because a particular work may have been published before autism was understood as a diagnostic category should not, and has never precluded autistic people from being able to recognize ourselves.

[Lachi]: Wiggins' guardianship continued for the rest of his life.

Passed from one Bethune to another, he was the object of their custody battles.

Wiggins' mother Charity unsuccessfully petitioned the courts repeatedly for the freedom of her son.

His guardianship ensured that every dollar from ticket and sheet music sales legally belonged to the Bethunes.

[Reflective, subdued piano melody] - We don't know anything from Blind Tom himself.

We hear written reports.

We have the published sheet music.

We have the reports of the performances.

But we have no sense of his agency except for what he did on stage.

[Strong, steady piano resembles soldiers marching] - When I was hearing the piece, I was just thinking of the opening section, it's like, [humming a beat].

It sounds like a marching beat, you know?

And then you have this melody, [fast-paced singing].

You know, it's like that against, you know, that marching type vibe.

And then you got this middle section where it's like really, like, a sad type of moment there, because it's really slow, and it's really, you know, legato.

- Sure.

- And then all of a sudden, you know, he starts banging on the piano.

[Intense piano, excitement and agitation] - What is a tone cluster?

We heard it, right?

But maybe people didn't hear it.

- It's basically playing all the notes on an instrument, on the piano, within a certain range.

Or you can play it anywhere.

[Crashing, echoing piano] [Both laughing] - Every time I do this lecture, and I play the part about the Star-Spangled Banner, and then you play the tone cluster in the middle of it, people break out laughing.

They just can't help it.

[Humming the Star-Spangled Banner] [Crashing noise, laughter] - Yeah, I think there's always something a bit subversive about his music.

[Star-Spangled Banner, soft] [Crashing notes] [Star-Spangled Banner, soft] - When you talk about the enslaved, you find agency where you can.

It wasn't until later that he actually refused to perform.

So in those last years, he didn't perform a lot.

And, you know, there's a sense of agency in that.

- What we wanna do is look at him in a larger context.

Like he was a very important person on a continuum of early American pianists that eventually led to the creation of jazz, rock and roll, and rhythm and blues.

[Elegant, graceful piano melody] [Voices off screen]: Cool?

- Yeah.

- One thing that I kind of wanna hit on a little bit is the trope of the Black blind musician.

It's a trope that you have to deal with, it's a trope that I have to deal with.

[Laughing] - We both have to deal with it!

- Right!

We play the piano, we're Black, we're blind, we're musicians.

- Yeah.

- What do you, how do you react to that trope?

What do you think about it, how does that make you feel?

- You know, I always tell people, look, at the end of the day, we're trying to accomplish the same goal as everybody.

Treat others the way you wanna be treated, period.

- Yeah.

- You know?

- And then I'll jump out, you do what you gotta do for a verse, then you can toss me back in.

- I can't with you!

- You know how it is in jazz.

Don't act like you don't know who I am!

[Hearty laughter] [Jazzy piano tune] ♪♪ The autumn leaves ♪ ♪♪ Drift by my window ♪ ♪♪ The falling leaves ♪ ♪♪ Ahh ♪ Yeah, baby!

Yeah, baby!

[Matthew screams] [Laughter] It hit me hard to learn about the exploitation that Blind Tom had to go through.

What we have today is the ability to create community.

- Right.

- The ability to not be so isolated, and to share our wins and our woes with our community.

I'm super grateful for that.

[Gentle piano] Nearly 200 years since Wiggins was born, it's still a struggle to be seen as a whole person, a musician, an artist.

I am proud to be disabled.

At the same time, I am disabled because who I am is not fully and completely accepted in the world.

[Reflective piano melody] At 59 years old, Wiggins had a stroke that paralyzed his right hand, taking away his ability to play the piano.

Three weeks later, he died of a heart attack, alone, on the floor of the Bethune's home in New York.

Today, there are grave markers for Wiggins in both his hometown of Columbus, Georgia, and near where he passed away in New York.

- Now, a lot of the stuff that he did 125 years ago, people are starting to rediscover that, and say, well, wow, we didn't know music could be like that.

Particularly not in the 19th century.

- Tom Wiggins is a historical figure that absolutely should be afforded substantially more attention.

Someone that should be recognized as significant in Black and disabled history.

[Heartfelt piano melody] - He was a performer of great renown and talent.

And his story is part of the fabric of African American and American music history.

[Heartfelt piano continues] - Has there been any conversation today with the descendants of the Bethune family?

- Actually, I did receive a letter from a descendant.

"There are many things about my family's history that cause me to write you.

I must initiate the process that will bring about healing that is needed.

I want to apologize for what was done by my ancestors to your ancestors.

But I don't think that the work is done just because I have seen the light."

♪♪ I live my life ♪ ♪♪ My rules my way ♪ [Clap]