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| George Washington Carver was born on the farm of Moses Carver, a German-American slave owner, near Diamond Grove, Missouri in 1864. At one point, he and his mother were kidnapped by night raiders and sold in an area believed to have been Arkansas. Moses Carver managed to find George and traded a race horse for his return to his farm so he and his wife, Susan could raise him. His real mother, Mary, was never found. The father of George is unknown, but he was believed to have been a slave on a neighboring farm. George was a frail child and it became apparent that he was ill-suited for the rigors of farm work. As time went by George began to develop a fascination with plants. For the first twelve years of his life, he was known simply as George, on occasion, he would introduce himself as the Carvers’ George. George didn’t even start his formal education until he was twelve years of age. There were no schools for Blacks near his home, so he traveled to Newton County, Missouri to enroll in a school there that accepted Blacks. He arrived there after the school had closed for the day, so he spent the night in a barn. Upon awakening early the next morning, he met Mariah Watkins who owned the property, introduced himself as the Carver’s George and she promptly changed his name to George Carver, a name with dignity! Neither knew how much dignity that name would have bestowed upon it in the future! George rented a room from the lady and worked as a farm hand while attending a one-room school. Mariah Watkins would have a great impact on George’s life. She once told him, “You must learn all you can, then go back out into the world and give your learning back to the people”. Upon completion of his first school, he attended Minneapolis High School in Kansas and graduated. Getting accepted into school up to this point had been challenging for George, due to the obstacles placed before Black students during a time of high racial discrimination. But, finally, Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa took a chance on him. He was the first Black person to be accepted at the college. But, he couldn’t study science there. He studied piano and art! Determined to pursue an education in science, he later managed to transfer to Iowa Agricultural College, today known as Iowa State University, where he completed his curriculum to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in 1894 at the age of thirty. He followed up with a Master of Science degree in bacterial botany and agriculture in 1897. Following that, he was offered a position as an instructor, the first Black instructor ever in the history of Iowa College, though it was to be a short-lived association, due to another offer. In Alabama was the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes, headed by Booker T. Washington. Mr. Washington had heard of George’s intellect and his love for science and especially agriculture. He offered George the position of Director of Agriculture and he accepted. George said goodbye to Iowa and traveled south to Alabama. This meant that George could run the department as he saw fit, trying his own experiments in hopes of introducing farming techniques that would benefit mankind in a time when many farmers were poor. The economy of the US was heavily dependant on agriculture. The years of growing cotton in the south had taken a toll on the soil, depleting it of its nutrients. George set about trying to convince farmers to grow other crops that would actually replenish these nutrients. Peanuts and sweet potatoes were two of them. The plan was to grow one crop one year, then on alternating years, grow cotton. The real income at that time was still from the cotton crops, so George had a rough time convincing the farmers at first, since no other crop had proven to be the financial success of cotton. It was a boll weevil plague that began to change the minds of many farmers. The little insects would destroy entire fields of cotton. Farmers
who tried George’s crop rotation method were glad they did; they had excellent
yields in cotton on the years they planted cotton. But, on the other hand, the
peanut crops were stacking up! Livestock ate some of the peanuts, but the majority
was going to waste, so Carver went to work on resolving the problem. For the peanuts
alone, he developed over 300 products, ranging from cooking oil to printers ink,
soap to shampoo. In time, the lowly peanut began to acquire status. In the meantime, George was continuing to work on things in his laboratory. During his time at Tuskegee, he developed over 500 different shades of fabric dyes, which had been previously imported from Europe. By 1927, he was producing paints and stains from soybeans. As time progressed, Carver was writing publications for American farmers, frequently detailing profitable practices and money saving practices. The Carver’s George was by now being called on by some of the best known politicians and industrialists. Inventor Thomas Edison offered him a job with his laboratory in Orange Grove, New Jersey. The position paid $100,000 per year, but Carver declined the offer, opting to remain at Tuskegee. George Washington Carver was a religious man, who when asked
why he hadn’t patented most of his products and inventions answered, “God
gave them to me. How can I sell them to someone else?” After returning home one day in January, 1943, George Washington Carver slipped and fell down a flight of stairs. A maid found him unconscious and immediately had him taken to the hospital. He passed away on January 5, 1943 at the age of 78 years. He
was buried alongside Booker T. Washington in the Tuskegee University Campus Cemetery.
The epitaph on his tombstone reads, He could have added fortune to fame, but
caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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©Copyright 2009 Wilson Jay | ||||||||||||||||||||||
