Blind John Metcalf

[RICHARD ROMEO]

from http://www.blind.net/bpba1973.htm

"But there is a more basic side to mobility, of course, than the 
opportunity and capacity for
long-distance traveling. There is the simple ability to get about, to 
walk and run, to mount a horse or ride a bicycle in short, to be 
physically independent. The number of blind persons who have mastered 
these skills of travel is countless, but no one has ever proved the point 
or shown the way with more flair than a stalwart Englishman of the 
eighteenth century named John Metcalf. Indeed, this brash fellow not only 
defied convention, but the world. Totally blind from childhood, he was 
(among other things) a successful builder of roads and bridges; racehorse 
rider; bare-knuckle fighter; card shark; stagecoach driver; and, on 
occasion, guide to sighted tourists through the local countryside. Here 
is an account of some of his many enterprises: 

          In 1751 he commenced a new employment; he set up a stage wagon 
betwixt York and
Knaresborough, being the first on the road, and drove it himself, twice a 
week in summer, and
once in winter. This business, with the occasional conveyance of army 
baggage, employed his attention till the period of his first contracting 
for the making of roads, which engagement suiting him better, he 
relinquished every other pursuit. The first piece of road he made was 
about three miles, and the materials for the whole were to be produced 
from one gravel pit; he therefore provided deal boards, and erected a 
temporary house at the pit; took a dozen horses to the place; fixed racks 
and mangers, and hired a house for his men, at Minskip. He often walked 
to Knaresborough in the morning, with four or five stones of meal on his 
shoulders, and joined his men by six o'clock. He completed the road much 
sooner than was expected, to the entire satisfaction of the surveyor and 
trustees. 

          The story of Blind Jack Metcalf, for all its individuality, is 
far from unique. Rather, it
underscores what even we as Federationists sometimes forget, and what 
most of the sighted have never learned at all namely, that the blind can 
compete on terms of absolute equality..."

Richard Romeo
Coordinator of Cooperating Collections
The Foundation Center-NYC
212-807-2417
rromeo at fdncenter.org