STORY
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver was born into slavery in Missouri, sometime in the early 1860s. George’s family were enslaved to a family named Carver. When little George was only a week old, he, his sister, and his mother were kidnapped by night raiders from Arkansas, and sold in a neighboring state. His mother and big sister were never seen again, but infant George, small and frail, was recovered and brought home safely. Moses Carver paid with his finest horse for the baby’s safe return. Slavery was abolished soon after, and Moses and his wife, Susan, raised George and his older brother, James, as their own children. “Aunt Susan” educated the boys, teaching them reading and writing, and encouraging them to pursue intellectual pursuits. The Carvers also took the boys to church where they enjoyed listening to traveling preachers. When he was 9 years old, George trusted Jesus as his savior. During his years with the Carvers, George learned to play the church’s piano. He loved to memorize and recite scripture and sing hymns. George also loved plants from a young age, and by grade school, had learned much about herbal medicine, natural pesticides, and natural fertilizers. When crops or houseplants were struggling, he enjoyed using his knowledge to nurse them back to health. By his teenage years, he was known locally as “the plant doctor”.
When George was around 13 years old, he decided to go to school to further his education. Discriminatory racial laws forbid him from going to the nearby public school, so he decided to go to school 10 miles away from the Carver’s home. Traveling on foot, he arrived at night and found the school closed. He slept in a nearby barn, and in the morning, met a kind woman, Mariah Hopkins. He introduced himself as “Carver’s George, and she gently replied that from now on, he should call himself “George Carver”. She offered to rent him a room, so he didn’t have to trek 20 miles on foot to and from school each day. He boarded with the Hopkins and went to church with them every Sunday. For Christmas, they presented him with a Bible, which he read every day and kept with him for the remainder of his life. Mrs. Hopkins made a lasting impression on young George with her encouragement to “learn all you can, then go back out into the world and give your learning back to the people.” That’s just what he intended to do.
George rotated between four different schools, continuing to move as his academic needs grew, until finally earning his diploma from Minneapolis High School in Kansas. After graduation, George applied to several colleges before he was accepted into Highland University, but when he arrived, he was not allowed to attend because of his ethnicity. Disappointed, but not about to give up, he travelled by wagon across Kansas and set up a small homestead in western Kansas. For the next several years, he grew and maintained a large variety of flowering plants, garden vegetables, crops, fruit trees, forest trees, and shrubs. He worked hard and continued to learn.
In 1890, he was ready for a change, and began studying art and piano at Simpson College in Iowa. His art teacher recognized his talent at painting flowers and plants, so she encouraged him to study botany at Iowa State Agricultural College, which he did the following year. George was a brilliant student. He earned near-perfect grades in all his studies. In addition to his love of science, he also pursued studies in art and missionary work, taking additional classes at Chicago Academy of Art and Moody Bible Institute. He earned his bachelor’s degree, and at the encouragement of his professors, pursued and earned his master’s degree as well. He began to gain national recognition and respect as a botanist, and became the first African American faculty member at Iowa State University.
In 1896, Booker T. Washington, founder and head of the Tuskegee Institute, invited George to be the head of the school’s Agriculture Department. George would go on to teach there for the next 47 years, beloved by his students, and would develop the department into a strong research center. He saw the need to organically transform Alabama’s depleted soil, so with the knowledge he had gained both through his education and working the land, he taught new methods of crop rotation that would help local farmers improve their cash crop production, as well as boost the failing soil for future farming. He concentrated on experimenting with new uses for common southern crops, including peanuts, soybeans, sweet potatoes, and pecans. During his time at the Tuskegee Institute, he also invented a mobile classroom so he could take education directly to the farmers. He encouraged better nutrition through teaching about alternative crops, and by distributing recipes using those alternative crops to those he taught. His goal was to improve opportunities for African American people and to live his life in a God-honoring way.
His students requested that he help them start a Bible class on campus, and he obliged. He began his popular Bible class with a short prayer, a broad smile, and then shared a Bible story or text. His students remember his ongoing encouragement to them to know and love their Creator, to live good and useful lives, and to reach out in kindness to help others. For many years, his class drew standing room only crowds on Sunday afternoons.
By 1920, he had gained wide publicity for his work with peanuts. He was invited to speak at a national farming conference, and even gave testimony before Congress. President Teddy Roosevelt publicly admired George’s work. Three US Presidents consulted with him, and the Crown Prince of Sweden studied under him for three weeks. He was one of the best-known African American men of his time.
During the last two decades of his life, George used his fame by often traveling and speaking, sharing a message of unity, promoting Tuskegee University, and promoting peanuts and sweet potatoes as well (“two of the greatest products God has ever given us”). By the end of his life, he had discovered over 300 uses for the humble peanut. He taught generations of African American students valuable farming techniques, and through his life’s work, he improved southern farming and the lives of farmers. He is credited with developing the modern organic movement in southern agriculture, and many of his methods are still in use today. When asked about how he came up with so many useful and innovative ideas, he replied, “I don’t make these discoveries. God has worked through me to reveal to His children some of His wonderful providence.”
