He became one of the most reknowned performers in the country in the late 19th century. His stage name was blind tom. He was born blind. And was what we probably now would call autistic. But he was a musical genius. He could hear a piece played on the piano one time, and then play it note for note. He composed some of his own music. That was mainly based on natural sounds like birds or thunderstorms. One of his famous pieces recreation of a civil war battle on the piano. The sad part about blind toms story, the family that owned him as a slave kept control of him all of his life. When the 13th amendment freed the slaves that family went to court and had tom declared mentally incompetent. So for the rest of his life, to the end of the 1900s. 1800s they toured him in europe and around the United States and they keep the proceeds from it. The other slave has a little bit happier story. His name was horace king and was the slave of a man who was in construction and was a Bridge Builder and