THOMAS FULLER, THE MAN WHO COULD SOLVE COMPLEX MATH IN HIS HEAD

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Thomas Fuller (1710-1790) born in Africa in "Negro town" between present day Liberia and Benin was shipped to America as a slave at the age of 14 (1724).
                                Picture from postnewsgroup.com

He eventually became legal property of Presley and Elizabeth Cox of Alexandria, Virginia, USA. Both Fuller and the Coxes were illiterates and he was most valued among other slaves owned by The Coxes. 

Due to Fuller's extraordinary arithmetic ability, he was also called Virginia calculator, mental calculator. He is also known as Negro Tom.

Fuller wasn't predisposed to reading or writing but later in his life, he was discovered by antislavery campaign who used him as a demonstration that blacks are not mentally inferior to whites. 
     
                         Photo from reportghana.com 

At 70 years of age, William Hartshorne and Samuel Coates from Pennsylvania while traveling through the slave neighborhood heard of his remarkable ability and sent for him. He was asked two questions to satisfy their curiosity. 

Firstly, he was asked how many seconds there were in a year and half, he answered in about two minutes, 47,304,000.
Secondly, he was asked, how many seconds a man has lived who is 70 years, 17 days and hours old, he answered in a minute and half, 2, 210, 500, 800.
One of the men who was working out the problem on a paper said he was wrong because the answer was much smaller. 
Fuller replied "Master, you forgot the leap year".
When the leap year was added, the sums matched. 
   
                               Photo from blackpast.com 

When someone who had witnessed his calculating skill remarked that it was a pity he had not been educated, Fuller replied; " It is best I got no learning, for many learned men be great fools ".

Many argued that he learnt this skill while in Africa. He died in December 1790 in Alexandria, Virginia, USA. 

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