Fisk University-Thomas Rutling (1854-1915) was a formerly enslaved man who became an original member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers

Thomas Rutling (1854-1915) was a formerly enslaved man who became an original member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, which was a choral group that toured throughout the United States and Europe. He was a tenor in the group.
The Fisk Free Colored (high) School which was a part of Fisk University.

Rutling was born on December 24, 1854, into slavery. His father had either been sold by slavers or had run away before his birth.
Rutling was the youngest out of nine children.
At age eight, Rutling was put into fieldwork, but his master soon redirected him to household work.

His mother was sold when he was age three. Rutling never found out the fate of his parents.
Rutling’s mother spent so much time hiding from her master in the wilds of Wilson County, Tennessee that he often wondered if he had been born in the woods.

She was always dragged back and savagely whipped, until her owners decided to sell her. “The very earliest thing I remember was this selling of my mother,” he recalled when he was a Jubilee Singer.

In middle age, Rutling could still recall the feel of the lash licking his infant arm as they struck her for clinging to him.

When Rutling’s master died, his daughter traded two of her slaves for Rutling and brought him with her to her elderly husband’s plantation.

As a young table servant, Rutling often overheard his owners conversing about the Civil War and relayed their news to his fellow slaves.
In 1863, a column of Union troops marched through Wilson County, announcing that from now on Rutling and his fellow slaves could consider themselves emancipated.

“Tom, we are free!” exclaimed Rutling’s older brother. “Now we’ll have horses and carriages like master.”

But the horses and carriages did not materialize, and Rutling and his brother moved to Nashville, where they lived with their sister, who taught Tom some rudiments of reading and arithmetic.

Eventually a Union Army surgeon recommended him to Erastus Milo Cravath, the President of the newly established Fisk Free Colored School at Fisk University, where he would remain for the next five years, waiting tables and “working and studying as I could.”

Thomas paid for his tuition by becoming a waiter for the teachers. He attended the Literary Society's weekly debates, which helped with his linguistic skills.

In 1871-2, Rutling joined the university's choir as a tenor, and became devoted to choir conductor George White, who was impressed by the young man’s tenor voice, which a white newspaper deemed the best in Tennessee.

They toured across the country to raise funds and spread awareness for Fisk University.

The choir was soon named the Fisk Jubilee Singers, since they sang renditions of Negro spirituals.

Rutling performed with the Jubilees for the full seven years of their first three tours, but after one European tour he refused to return to racist America,

He moved to Switzerland and supposedly fathered a son in Austria.

Rutling then returned to England, where he was sponsored as a singer by August Manns, an orchestral director.

When public interest in his singing waned, he became a voice teacher at schools in Britain.

In 1907, he toured church halls. Rutling published a short autobiography in Bradford and Devon.

Thomas Rutling died (thought to be by a stroke) on April 26, 1915, at 97 Valley Drive, Harrogate. His death may have been due to liver cancer.

Rutling's friends paid for his funeral and plot in Grove Road cemetery, including the stone cross inscribed "Late Jubilee Singer, Fisk University. They sing the song of the lamb".

Rutling was remembered with love and affection, his impact (mainly in Britain) was significant.
He was remembered for his singing, his eloquence, and his role as a representative of the Afro-American arts.

Source: https://www.pbs.org/.../america.../features/singers-rutling/

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisk_Jubilee_Singers

Source: https://www.africansinyorkshireproject.com/early-jubilee...

Source: https://blog.library.si.edu/.../22/fisk-jubilee-singers/...

Source: Wikipedia