Blind Tom Bethune Research Paper

THOMAS “BLIND TOM” GREENE WIGGINS BETHUNE Thomas “Blind Tom” Greene Wiggins Bethune (b. 1849 Georgia-d. 1908 New Jersey), was a composer and pianist born to Domingo Wiggins and Charity Greene on Wiley Jones 's plantation in Harris County, Georgia. In 1850, Bethune was auctioned off to Colonel James Neil Bethune, along with his parents and two brothers. Born blind and sickly, he was included with the purchase of his family for free.1 As a toddler he took on the name of his new owner, Bethune. The Bethunes had a piano installed in the parlor for their daughters to practice their piano duets and sonatas. At the age of four, his late night performance of the strains of a Mozart Sonata, on the Bethunes 's piano astonished the colonel. The
In 1857, Bethune made his formal debut as “Tom, The Blind Negro Boy Pianist,” at Temperance Hall in Columbus, Georgia on 7 October. This debut led to other concerts around the state. After the death of the colonel 's wife in 1858, Bethune was hired out to Savannah tobacco plantation owner, Perry Oliver under a three-year-contract with the colonel. Oliver paid the colonel $15,000 for the right to exhibit Bethune in other parts of the country. As Bethune and Oliver made road trips around the country, Bethune had up to four performances in a day. He amazed his audiences using his ability to mimic any music he had heard. Under Oliver, listeners and reviewers also called him, “The Marvelous Musical Prodigy” or “Tom, the Musical
Bethune, but his son was killed while boarding a train. However, custody was not returned to the colonel, but to Eliza Stutzbach, his son 's wife, as a result of a lawsuit she won against the colonel. After she discovered that she was frozen out of her husband 's will, she persuaded Bethune 's mother to file a second habeas corpus petition against the colonel in 1885. Bethune 's mother prevailed, thus making Stutzbach his new guardianship. Bethune continued to tour under his new manager Eliza Stutzbach, but his performances were not at the tireless pace they were before. His occasional absence from the stage led to an influx of various “Blind Tom” imposters and rumors of his death. In 1903, Bethune moved to Hoboken, New Jersey with Stutzbach. His final appearances were on the Keith Circuit (a popular chain of vaudeville shows owned by Benjamin Franklin Keith) in 1904 and 1905. In 1908, Bethune died of a stroke at the age of