When I started reading The Hottentot Venus, I realized I had come across this type of character before in music. For my senior recital on piano, I finished with a piece by a not-so-well-known composer Thomas Wiggins.
"Blind Tom" was born a slave in the American Civil War Era. Because of his blindness, he was sold at auction as a joke trophy and couldn't work, so was allowed to stay in the new owner's house where he was exposed to classical piano music.
It turns out, Tom was an autistic savant with prodigious skills far exceeding Mozart. He eventually memorized a reported 7000 pieces. He toured America and Europe, advertized as a "freak". His owner and later guardians profited from his performances and it is believed that much of what he wrote was credited to other composers of the time (although to add to the confusion, Tom published under different pseudonyms or allowed his scribes/teachers to publish under their name.)
It seems authority does not discriminate different disciplines.
~ John
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