George Washington Carver Biography

George Washington Carver was a clever man with big dreams and the intention of pursuing them. He is known to many as “The Peanut Man” for his extensive work on peanuts. During his lifetime, Carver discovered over 300 uses of the peanut as well as sweet potatoes. What many do not realize is the difficulty Carver faced during his career. Many people, schools, and places he visited rejected him simply because of his race. Due to this racial prejudice, Carver had a very hard time getting his inventions noticed. Carver slowly built his way up from a simple school for blacks, to several years in college, to one of the first professors at Tuskegee Institute. Carver was not only interested in peanuts, but also painting and agriculture. Because of
Born sometime in the early 1860’s in Diamond Grove, Missouri, Carver had little family, as his father died before his birth and his mother and sister were kidnapped. With only one brother, Carver’s masters, Moses and Mary Carver took them in as their own children. Because he did not originally have a last name, Carver took on his owners’ sir name, as he saw them as his parents rather than his master.
Growing up on a farm, Carver had much interest in the nature that was around him. Later Carver said, “I wanted to know every strange stone, flower, insect, bird, or beast,” referring to his earlier life on the farm. Because of his profound interest, at age 10, Moses and Mary Carver sent him to live with a black couple in Neosho so that he could attend the school there in exchange for household chores. In two short years, Carver had already learned all he could from the small school and left for Kansas in search of a more advanced school. After about 10 years, finding work for food and clothing, Carver finally graduated from high school. Soon after, Carver applied to a nearby college in
Once he had earned his degree, Carver was made the assistant professor of botany. Carver began to teach more and more farmers about crop rotation and how to make better soil. Word of Carver’s talent soon got around when Booker T. Washington, the most famous African American at that time, offered Carver a position as head of the agricultural department at Tuskegee Institute, a school for blacks, in a letter saying, “Tuskegee Institute seeks to provide education – a means for survival to those who attend. Our students are poor, often starving… We teach them to read and write, but words cannot fill stomachs. They need to learn how to plant and harvest crops.” Carver accepted because he wanted to give blacks the chance for education they could not receive anywhere