Thomas Wiggins - An Enslaved Prodigy

This is a post I have been putting off writing for two reasons. First, it hurts my heart. I am a helper, a nurturer, an empath. Knowing this man's story and how he was exploited for his entire life is difficult to sit with. Second, it opens the floodgates. Many of the stories of disability in the nineteenth century take place in "freak shows" and on vaudeville circuits. There are many of these on my post ideas list. This was merely the first.

However, we can't sugarcoat the past. These people truly lived and their stories deserve to be told in their entirety. Yes, Thomas Wiggins was an incredibly talented musician and yes, he and his family was taken advantage of through the system of slavery, institutional racism, and abusing the legal system. All of the aspects of his story are important and I hope you enjoy learning more about "Blind Tom."

Tom as an adult

Prince John - The Lost Prince

 This story came to me through an excellently written historical fiction novel: The Royal Nanny by Karen Harper. My dear grandma (called "Mite") lent it to me. Since I was about in middle school, she and I have exchanged hundreds of books. We have similar reading preferences and we know that, if one of us recommends a book for the other, she is never wrong.

The Royal Nanny tells the story of Charlotte "Lala" Bill, a young nanny who cares for the British royal family beginning in 1897. The children she so loves are the great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria. The youngest, John, is the one who needs her the most. The book is beautiful and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction. (For the record, I have never read a Karen Harper novel that I didn't like. She sadly passed away from cancer in April 2020.)

John, 1913