Blind tom biography

Safely tucked away in a few scattered archives across the nation are pages of sheet music--compositions with titles such as "Battle of Manassas" and "Virginia Polka" that are dormant testimony to the life of the child named Tom who composed them--a child who lived a century past and whose musical abilities still remain a medical and scientific mystery.

One common thread of explanation found in all attempts to explain Tom by those who witnessed his performances is that he embodied the spirit of a higher power.

Tom was born on May 25, with a condition that today's doctors might diagnose with the politically correct term "autistic savant"--one of only about cases recorded in medical history.

Tom's father Domingo Wiggins, a field slave, and h