1 In the
1860s, Moses and Susan Carver lived on a small farm near Diamond Grove,
Missouri. The Carvers owned one slave. Her name was Mary. Mary had two
small children. The boys were named James and George. The boys' father
died before George was born.
2 One
night, raiders came to the Carver farm. They stole Mary and the two
boys. George was only a baby, and James was about six years old. The
men took them to sell them again as slaves. Moses Carver hired a man to
find his slave. The man was able to get the boys, but he couldn't find
Mary.
3 After
the Civil War ended in 1865, all slaves were free. Moses and Susan
Carver didn't have any children. They raised George and James as their
own. The boys worked hard on the Carver farm. George was always a
sickly child. He helped "Aunt Sue," as the boys called Mrs. Carver,
with the housework. He collected eggs from the henhouse. He churned
butter. He helped plant the garden. One of George's favorite chores was
picking persimmons in the fall.
4 Another
of George's favorite things was exploring the woods around their home.
He collected rocks. He kept pet frogs. He also kept a secret flower
garden of his own. For the hardworking farmers of that time, it was
"foolishness to waste time on flowers," George later said. It was
during this time that people began to call him "the plant doctor."
5 George
was always asking "why." He was curious about everything. At that time,
black children and white children were not allowed to go to the same
schools. There was no school for black children near the Carvers' home.
Susan Carver taught George to read. When George was about twelve, he
decided to go away to Neosho, Missouri, where there was a school for
blacks. The Carvers gave him their blessing, and George walked about
twelve miles to Neosho. He carried his belongings wrapped up in a
bandana.
6 In
Neosho, George lived with a black family named Watkins. Mariah Watkins
used herbs and plants to heal the sick black people who could not
afford a doctor. Andrew Watkins was a handyman who also loved
gardening. George spent a happy year with the Watkins where he learned
all he could at the black school. Then he moved on.
7 George
did odd jobs for a while. He tried homesteading on the Kansas prairie,
but the harsh winters and droughts killing crop after crop made him
move on. Finally, he was accepted as a student at a small college. Life
was not easy then for George. He said, "The opening of the school found
me at Simpson College in Iowa, attempting to run a laundry for my
support...I lived on prayer, beef suet and corn meal, and quite often
being without the suet and meal." In spite of the hardships, he earned
his bachelor's degree and later a master's degree.
8 In
1896, Booker T. Washington invited George W. Carver to his school in
Tuskegee, Alabama. Washington wanted George to design and run the
agricultural department at Tuskegee Institute as well as teach courses
and do research.
9 In
Alabama as in most of the South, farmers had planted cotton year after
year. The soil was poor. Plants were small and weak. Professor Carver
taught farmers to plant other crops one year and plant cotton the next.
Other crops like sweet potatoes, soybeans, black-eyed peas, and peanuts
were planted on cotton's "off" years. This is called crop rotation.
Crop rotation helps improve the soil and control pests and plant
diseases. When farmers grew too much of these crops, Carver came up
with new ways to use them.
10 From
sweet potatoes, he made ink, sugar, starch, flour, vinegar, and
molasses, just to name a few. Carver invented hundreds of new uses for
peanuts including dyes for clothing, paint, face cream, massage oil,
ice cream, and instant coffee. George Washington Carver became known as
"the Peanut Man." Professor Carver wrote a booklet showing "105 Ways of
Preparing the Peanut for Human Consumption." Up until this time, people
thought that peanuts were only good for animal food.
11 Carver
believed that people should treasure nature, not just take from it. He
wrote, "The farmer whose soil produces less every year is unkind to it
in some way." He said that people who took from the land were harming
themselves. The weaker the soil became, the less plentiful and robust
the crops that came from the soil.
12 Carver
tried to teach the "waste not, want not" way of life that he had grown
up with. Instead of using chemical fertilizers, he taught farmers to
make use of manure or compost. In many ways, Carver was ahead of his
time. One of his uses for peanuts was a biofuel he called "fuel
briquettes." He said that people should use what they have to make what
they need.
13 For
the Tuskegee Institute, Carver wrote over forty booklets or bulletins,
as they were called. These were simply written so that the average
person could understand them. Some told how to increase crop yields.
Some told how to save or preserve garden fruits and vegetables. One
told farmers to feed acorns to farm animals-a free food source that
many had not thought of making use of.
14 Dr.
Carver taught at the Tuskegee Institute for forty-seven years. He died
on January 5, 1943, after a fall down a flight of stairs. The exact day
or even year of his birth is unknown, but he was about seventy-eight
years old. A few months after his death, a national monument was
created to honor him near his birthplace in Missouri. This was the
first national monument dedicated to an African-American. It was also
the first monument to a non-President.
15 Today,
"the Peanut Man" is remembered also for his respect for the environment
and his fellow man, whether he be black or white. Although he held
three patents, most of his inventions were freely given to anyone who
wanted to use them. He wanted people to use wisely what nature gave
them. Before he died, he set up a foundation bearing his name with
sixty thousand dollars he had saved during his lifetime. The
foundation's purpose was to give scholarships to young people
interested in science. The foundation also created a museum at Tuskegee
Institute. The museum is full of artifacts from Carver's life. In 1990,
he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
