science · 29 December 1790 · 234 years ago
In 1790, an obituary was published for Thomas Fuller in Boston's Columbian Centinel. “Died—Negro Tom, the famous African calculator, aged 80 years.” He was enslaved from Africa at age 14. Fuller was a prodigy in arithmetical calculation, though he could neither read nor write. Once asked how many seconds a man lived in 70 years, some odd months, weeks and days, he speedily gave an answer that his questioner said was too high, but Fuller was correct as he had included the leap years in his calculation. If, in the course of a calculation, his progress was interrupted by conversation on another subject, he could continue by picking up where he had left off. Dr. Benjamin Rush, an anti-slavery campaigner, used Fuller's ability as an example of the equivalent intellect of both black and white men.
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