Thomas Fuller – Mathematician
Purpose:
The purpose of this lesson is to show how competent Africans/slaves were engaged in mental math in
comparison to what Whites thought they were able to do. Despite the capabilities they attained, they were
still shipped to America to work as slaves or indentured servants to the Whites of America. Throughout this
lesson, students will learn how it felt to be judged based on physical characteristics as well as learning their
own capabilities in mental math using integers.
Grade Level: 4th – 5th
Objectives:
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Students will be able to explain who Thomas Fuller (mathematician) was in relationship to the slave trade.
Students will be able to practice adding and subtracting integers from -10 to 10.
Students will be able to justify why it was wrong for Americans to partake in the trading of Africans to
become slaves in America.
Materials
• Thomas Fuller (mathematician) article and photo
• Thomas Fuller Hip hop song lyrics
• Hip Hop Instrumental song (any)
• Adding and Subtracting Integers flashcards (handmade with index cards)
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. •
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Adding and Subtracting Integers quiz
Blank white paper
Lined white paper
Crayons
Opening:
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Teacher will begin the lesson by asking the students what does a mathematician look like? Ask the
student what race is he or she? What does he or she do for a living? Where does he or she live? etc.
Using the previous stated questions, as small groups ask the students to draw a sketch what they think
this person would look like on a blank piece of what paper.
Discuss as a class what the students have come up with.
Procedure:
• Most students will say that a mathematician is typically Caucasian, normally working in books all the time,
and that they probably live in a decent sized home in America. Show the students the picture of Thomas
Fuller on the projector or overhead. Let the students guess what this person does.
• Tell students this is Thomas Fuller, a mathematician. Have the students read the short bio handout for
further understanding of his role. There is also a Thomas Fuller hip hop song you can have the students
read along to an instrumental track. Be sure to emphasize that he was an African mathematician that was
very competent in mental math/calculations and despite this man’s capabilities, he still was enslaved
because of his race at the age of 14.
• Ask the students have they ever been looked down upon for something just based on the way they looked.
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. •
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Inform the students that is exactly what happened during the slave trade. Based upon an individual’s
looks (the color of their skin) they were traded to come to United States and do physical work.
Prior to this lesson, the students should have already learned about adding and subtracting integers,
numbers -10 through 10.
Tell the students they will become more familiar with adding and subtracting integers.
Guided Practice:
The students will play an integer game for about 15 minutes. The object of the game is to practice adding
integers with each other. The teacher will pass one integer problem flashcard to each student (the answer
to the problem will be on the back of the card). The students will all stand. Each student will find a partner
to ask the math problem to. Once both students have asked the math problem, they will switch cards and
find another partner and complete the same things. Have the students complete this for about 15 minutes.
This way the repeated math will have them develop a mental math of adding and subtracting integers.
Independent Practice:
Students will take a math quiz using the same math problems that were displayed in the math game. After
that students will feel very confident that they can add and subtract integers using mental math. Students
will answer the following journal entry: Imagine yourself as Thomas Fuller. How would you feel being told
that you were incapable of performing a certain task or having everything taken away from you based on the
color of your skin? Was it right for whites to claim you as property because of what you look like? Justify
your answers using examples from what you have learned today.
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. Pass out another blank sheet of white paper. Ask students to redraw what they think a mathematician can
look. Refer back to what the students learned in this lesson. The images should be of all types of people.
Let the students know they can too become a mathematician. Compare your first drawing to the one you’ve
just completed. What’s different in your photos? How and why did you make different decisions for your
drawing?
Thomas Fuller Biography
Thomas Fuller was an African, shipped to America as a slave in 1724. He had remarkable powers of
calculation, and late in his life was discovered by antislavery campaigners who used him as a demonstration
that blacks are not mentally inferior to whites.
The place of his birth appears to have been between present day Liberia and Benin. Known as Negro Tom, we
know that he was described as a very black man and also we know that he lived in Virginia after being
brought to the United States as a slave. Certainly late in his life he was the property of Elizabeth Coxe of
Alexandria.
Thomas Fuller, known as the Virginia Calculator, was stolen from his native Africa at the age of fourteen and
sold to a planter. When he was about seventy years old, two gentlemen, natives of Pennsylvania, viz., William
Hartshorne and Samuel Coates, men of probity and respectable characters, having heard, in travelling
through the neighborhood in which the slave lived, of his extraordinary powers in arithmetic, sent for him
and had their curiosity sufficiently gratified by the answers which he gave to the following questions: First,
Upon being asked how many seconds there were in a year and a half, he answered in about two minutes, 47
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. 304 000. Second: On being asked how many seconds a man has lived who is 70 years, 17 days and 12 hours
old, he answered in a minute and a half 2 210 500 800. One of the gentlemen who employed himself with his
pen in making these calculations told him he was wrong, and the sum was not so great as he had said - upon
which Thomas hastily replied: “Stop, master, you forget the leap year.” On adding the amount of the seconds
of the leap years the amount of the whole in both their sums agreed exactly.
Another question was asked and satisfactorily answered. Before two other gentlemen, he gave the amount of
nine figures multiplied by nine. ... In 1790 he died at the age of 80 years, having never learned to read or
write, in spite of his extraordinary power of calculation.
Present day thinking is that Fuller learned to calculate in Africa before he was brought to the United States
as a slave. Supporting evidence for this comes from a passage written by Thomas Clarkson in 1788 describing
the purchase of African slaves:It is astonishing with what facility the African brokers reckon up the exchange of European goods for
slaves. One of these brokers has ten slaves to sell, and for each of these he demands ten different articles.
He reduces them immediately by the head to bars, coppers, ounces... and immediately strikes the balance.
The European, on the other hand, takes his pen, and with great deliberation, and with all the advantage of
arithmetic and letters, begin to estimate also. He is so unfortunate, as to make a mistake: but he no sooner
errs, than he is detected by this man of inferior capacity, whom he can neither deceive in the name or
quality of his goods, nor in the balance of his account.
From - http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Fuller_Thomas.html
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. THOMAS FULLER
By Rhonda Schilling
Let me tell you a story you may never have heard
‘bout an African slave who was no amateur
He was a math wizard, with the nickname
The Virginia Calculator, which brought him fame
Thomas Fuller, great math formulator
Thomas Fuller, the Virginia Calculator
Thomas Fuller, great math formulator
Thomas Fuller, the Virginia Calculator
Born in 1710, he spent his life as a slave
But when it came to math, everybody would rave.
His skills were second to none and faster than anyone.
He did it all in his head and he never was outdone.
He could multiply huge numbers, solely in his head.
No need to check his answers, you could trust what he said.
When he was asked how many seconds in a year and a half
He answered in about 2 minutes, with no help on his behalf.
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. Thomas Fuller, great math formulator
Thomas Fuller, the Virginia Calculator
Thomas Fuller, great math formulator
Thomas Fuller, the Virginia Calculator
How many feet in 17 miles, how many inches would that be?
That would be a simple question for Tom Fuller to foresee.
For sure he was a genius, what a mind he must have had.
When I think about slavery, it really makes me mad.
Thomas Fuller, great math formulator
Thomas Fuller, the Virginia Calculator
Thomas Fuller, great math formulator
Thomas Fuller, the Virginia Calculator
What an inspiration, someone to admire.
To have such a talent and no way to acquire
an education or a job or a life of his own.
To think what he could do and what he must have known!
He spent his life as a slave, I’m sure he wanted more.
I owe it to him not to waste or ignore
the chances that I’m given; opportunities galore.
I can be anything if I let my mind soar!
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. Adding and Subtracting Integers Quiz
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3 + (-8) =
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(-9) - (-4) =
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7-5=
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6 - (-4) =
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(-4) - (-2) =
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(-4) - 10 =
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6-5=
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(-2) - 5 =
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(-2) - 7 =
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(-5) + (-10) =
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. Banks-Bloom
Navigator
Knowledge
Contributions
Students will
read bio and
song of Thomas
Fuller.
Additive
Transformation
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation
Was it right for
whites to claim
you as property
because of what
you look like?
Justify.
What does a
mathematician
look like?
Create a new
drawing of what
a mathematician
can look like?
Compare and
contrast your
first drawing to
the second
drawing. What’s
different
between the two
images?
Imagine yourself as
Thomas Fuller.
How would you feel
being told that you
were incapable of
performing a certain
task or having
everything taken
away from you
based off the color
of your skin?
Social Action
©2013 Nancy L. Copeland, Deborah Harmon, & Toni Stokes Jones | Eastern Michigan University | College of Education. All rights reserved. This project was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program.