African slave and calculating prodigy: Bicentenary of the death of Thomas Fuller (Q917534)

The main part of the article deals with the historiography on Thomas Fuller (1710-1790), an African calculating prodigy who was brought to America and sold as a slave in 1724. All later accounts are traced to two short publications from 1789 and 1790, respectively, which are reproduced as appendices, and which were written in the context of anti-slavery argumentation, as counter-evidence against the generally held mental inferiority of black people. Until the late mid-19th century, Fuller's case was used for this purpose. Then came a phase where he, like other prodigies, were used as metrizable evidence in the emerging fields of experimental psychology and psychical research. Finally, since the early 20th century, he and the general phenomenon of prodigies have been taken to provide data for theories of mathematical creativity and genius. It is demonstrated how writers of later times have tended to invent extra evidence of their own, often in order to turn Fuller into an idiot savant, in spite of the intelligence reflected in the early sources. The final part discusses the scattered but indubitable evidence for widespread mental calculation in the 18th century Benin-to-Liberia region, where Fuller probably has his origin, arguing thus that his skills should be seen in the context of his childhood ethnomathematical background.