Ep 48: The Virginia Calculator

MORE TEST! More engagement... to highlight a special fact. Thomas Fuller. The Virginia Calculator illiterate but Mathematical - how does that work? HOW MANY SECONDS ARE THERE IN A YEAR AND HALF? YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE TO ANSWER.... PREVIOUSLY ENSLAVED STILL LEGENDARY...

B Daht explains more about this history, a natural talent that changed one man’s world & the way all black persons were evaluated at the time.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
Test time. I have two questions and I'll give you
to the end of this episode to answer, and you
can't use a calculator. First question, how many seconds are
in a year and a half? Second question, a man
who's seventy years, seventeen days, and twelve hours old, how

(00:21):
many seconds has he lived? Thomas Fuller he was an
African sold in the slavery in seventeen twenty four at
the age of fourteen. He would be known as the
Virginia calculator, y'all because he could solve complex math problems
in his head. Now, the thing is, he was great
in math, but he couldn't read or write. Now, that

(00:43):
wasn't uncommon amongst the enslaved black people of the time,
but many wondered where did he get this phenomenal sense
of mathematics. Many just believed he gained those math skills
in his homeland of Africa. But many times abolitionists will
use his case as proof that blacks were in no
way mentally inferior to white vote. But Fuller was shipped
from Africa to America in seventeen twenty four and became

(01:05):
legal property of Presley and Elizabeth Cox. All three of
them were illiterate. The Cox is on sixteen slaves, but
they really loved Fuller. When Fuller was about seventy years old,
William Hartshorn and Samuel Coates of Pennsylvania had been hearing
these stories of Fuller's powers, and they sent for him.
Asked them two questions which satisfied their curiosity. Alright, time's

(01:27):
up if you've been trying to play alone, because I'm
about to tell you the answers. First, they asked him
how many seconds there were in a year and a half,
and he answered in about two minutes forty seven million,
three hundred and four thousand, with no calculator. Second, they
asked them how many seconds a man who's lived seventy years,
seventeen days and twelve hours old. He answered in a

(01:50):
minute and a half two billion, two hundred and ten million,
five hundred thousand, eight hundred seconds. I mean. One of
the men that was working out the problems on paper
told Fuller, you're wrong. The answer is much smaller. And
that's when Fuller told him real quick, well, master, you
forgot the leapya. When they added in the leap year

(02:12):
Fuller was correct. Many times. Fuller spoke of great respect
to his mistress, and mentioned in particular how grateful he
was at her refusing to sell him because she had
been tempted by offers of large sums of money from
several several owners. They all wanted pieces of Thomas Fuller,
the Virginia Calculator. I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either,