Thomas Fuller – Mathematician · Thomas Fuller – Mathematician Purpose: The purpose of this lesson is to show how competent Africans/slaves were engaged in mental math in

©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 – 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:

• 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)


• Adding and Subtracting Integers quiz • Blank white paper • Lined white paper • Crayons

Opening:

• 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.


• 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.


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


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


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.


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!


Adding and Subtracting Integers Quiz

• 3 + (-8) =

• (-9) - (-4) =

• 7 - 5 =

• 6 - (-4) =

• (-4) - (-2) =

• (-4) - 10 =

• 6 - 5 =

• (-2) - 5 =

• (-2) - 7 =

• (-5) + (-10) =


Banks-Bloom Navigator

Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation

Contributions

Students will read bio and song of Thomas Fuller.

Was it right for whites to claim you as property because of what you look like? Justify.

Additive

What does a mathematician look like?

Create a new drawing of what a mathematician can look like?

Transformation

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

Documents

Thomas Fuller – Mathematician · Thomas Fuller – Mathematician Purpose: The purpose of this lesson is to show how competent Africans/slaves were engaged in mental math in