George Washington Carver
How George Washington Carver Influenced the World
Barbara Bloetscher
George Washington Carver was an inventor, researcher and social engineer. He received tremendous accolades from the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Edison and many more. But George’s life didn’t start out in the 1860’s like that.
George’s life was not that unique after the Civil War; his parents were slaves. His mother, Mary, was purchased by Moses Carver in 1855. Moses Carver’s house was a 14’ x 14’ one room “shanty”, built by Moses with mud and rags stuffed in the gaps between the logs. Moses later built a slightly larger home for his family with central heating (fireplace) and room enough to eat and sleep on the floor. Mary and her children lived in the original “shanty” house with her children.
George didn’t know exactly when he was born. No one paid attention to slave children in those days, but he was thought to have been born in July of 1865 or 1866. His father had died before he was born. When he was a few weeks old, George and his mother were kidnapped by slave raiders. Moses Carver offered one of his workers $300 and a racehorse if he would find and return George and his mother. Mary was never found and was presumed to be dead, but George was brought back and “adopted” by Moses and his wife Susan. He became George Carver. They also adopted George’s older brother, Jim.
Perhaps from cold drafts in a rural home, George was seriously ill as a baby. With no access to doctors or medicine, Mrs. Carver gave him homemade tinctures which apparently did not cure him. Historians suspect that he had bronchitis which caused permanent damage to his lungs. As a result, George was often sick and susceptible to influenza and other maladies. He suffered from recurrent illnesses all his life.
Moses knew that George was special, if not a little “odd”. He spent every day in the woods, enthralled with birds, plants, insects, mushrooms and any natural thing. He often talked to plants and was always bringing back treasures which he kept in a “secret garden” at the edge of the woods. He transplanted wildflowers and spread seeds from other plants too big to dig up and was heartbroken if he smashed a plant. His fascination grew with age but one of his frustrations was that he didn’t know what any of these amazing things were, as they had no books nor was there a library in their little town of Diamond Grove, Missouri.
At this time, Black children were not allowed to attend the white children’s school, and nothing was offered for them in town. The closest school for them was 8 miles away in Neosho, Missouri. At the age of 10, with no available transportation, he resolved to walk the hilly path to Neosho so that he could learn about these “amazing things that God created”.
One day, hot, hungry and exhausted, he was found asleep in a barn owned by Mr. and Mrs. Watkins, near the Black school. Mr. and Mrs. Watkins liked George’s humble, courteous personality and allowed him to stay with them while he attended school. However unlike Moses and Susan who accepted him as their own, this couple expected him to work and pay for his books and materials as they had little to share. George had learned how to clean and iron clothes at “home” and now used his skills to make money. He also helped the Watkins with their chores and attended school as much as possible. Soon, he realized that the local teachers could not advance his education, so he headed for Fort Scott, Kansas for higher education. He was about 13 years old then.
Like many people at that time, he would work long enough to pay for several weeks of school, then had to work several more months until he had funds for tuition and books to continue. He did odd jobs to help pay for school and drew detailed replicas of plants, mushrooms, insects, feathers, and other natural creations that amazed him. He also loved to paint. Some of them he sold to pay for school. It was a scary time for Black people, especially in the south. In March 1879, George witnessed a man wrongly accused of winking at a white woman and was beaten savagely then hanged and burned. He remembered that his entire life. He left that night for Olathe, Kansas where he met Lucy and Christopher Seymour, a white couple who befriended him.
In the Summer of 1880, he and the Seymours moved to Minneapolis, Kansas where he attended night school with white students and was able to complete grades 8, 9 and 10. The Seymours, who became lifelong friends with George encouraged him to apply for a degree at Highland College, in Kansas, and although accepted on paper, after spending all his money to travel there, he was denied because they said that they only accepted indigenous people. Disillusioned and broke, he ran a laundry business for a while, then moved to Ness County, Kansas in 1886, where he built a sod house and farmed, but sadly a severe drought continued for several years which killed crops in the area. He was known to carry buckets of water 5 miles to help his parched crops to no avail.
In 1888, he borrowed money and moved to Winterset, Iowa where he was a cook in a large hotel. Typical for him, he attended every church service he could and was heard singing in his high tenor voice. Mrs. Milholland loved his voice and invited him to their house. Soon Milholland’s and he were fast friends. Impressed with his artistic skills and great attention to the natural world, Mr. and Mrs. Milholland urged him to apply to Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. George walked 25 miles to apply in person, but this time the all-white college accepted him eagerly, thus in September 1890 he enrolled as an art major.
With no money for a dorm, George cut wood and sold paintings for money. Seeing that George was living in a barn, the administrator allowed him to stay in a tiny shack which had a dirt floor and no furniture. George dug into his studies and was active in YMCA, basketball, sang in the choir and participated in cultural events. He also played in student bands, as he could play 4 different instruments – the organ, guitar, violin and accordion. He won the hearts of the students and faculty to the point that the students brought him a table, chairs, a bed and other basic furniture. No matter where he went on his long journey, he befriended everyone. He was gracious and thankful for any crumb of assistance and showed that he was willing to work hard.
One of his many fans, Etta May Budd who was his art professor realized that George Carver would have a difficult road ahead with an art career, so she contacted her father J. L. Budd, a horticulture professor at Iowa State College of Agricultural and Mechanic Arts (now Iowa State University), in Ames, Iowa. Once again, he was the first Black student on campus, and although he struggled at first, he soon won the hearts of the students and many professors. He again was active in many social activities.
He was about 30 years old in 1894 when he obtained an undergraduate degree, then with the urging of the faculty, continued and was the first African American to earn a Master’s Degree at Iowa State Univ. He was the groundskeeper and cared for the greenhouses, plus he taught freshman botany in addition to working on his projects. George did not “just” teach, he thoroughly engrossed himself in botany, biology, entomology, plant pathology and mycology. He took his students on field trips, including the 6-year-old Henry A. Wallace, son of friend Henry C. Wallace who became the USDA Secretary of Agriculture.
Upon graduating, Iowa State begged him to stay and be a full-time faculty member. They offered him a fully equipped laboratory, a flattering salary and any help he needed to conduct his research. George was torn as he had developed strong friendships with many of the faculty, chairmen and the students; in fact, a group of “his children” (students who adopted him as their dad) bought him a suit which he wore the rest of his life, though worn, battered, and repeatedly mended. Other universities sought him too, but at that time in 1881, Booker T. Washington had established the “Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers” (renamed Tuskegee University in 1985), thanks to the Morrill Act 1862 which appropriated land to public universities for agricultural education.
By 1896, he had established an agriculture school and wanted George Washington Carver to be Chairman. Washington begged Carver to come but had little to offer. They could not pay well and did not have equipment for a lab, but he promised Carver that they would “soon” have everything he needed. That day never arrived but regardless, in October 1896, Carver joined the faculty, believing that he was “following God’s will to be of the greatest good for the greatest number of my people possible.” Carver spent the rest of his life in a marvelous career improving the life of all people, animals and plants, and changing history.
Meanwhile, in 1872, Auburn University had become the first land-grant college in the south and was funded with an Experiment Station, but because it was an all-white school, George implored his friend Henry C. Wallace who was then the USDA Secretary of Agriculture to fund Tuskegee for an Experiment Station as well. Wallace respected George immensely and allocated Tuskegee as a land grant university with an Experiment Station, although the funding was about one tenth of Auburn’s. George was appointed as Director and Consulting Chemist on the Tuskegee Experiment Station in 1897.
George W. Carver saw the plight of Black people in the south – they had no money and had lost their land trying to pay their debts. They were forced to work on other people’s farms to earn a small percentage of the crops’ sales. Because the war had ended which decreased the reliance on cotton, and because the soil had been depleted of nutrients from continuous cotton, growers were making very little and falling further and further behind. Carver was determined to help “his people” find ways to make money while restoring soil fertility. Before long he made compost bins and discovered the miracles of peanuts, cowpeas and sweet potatoes and the benefits of crop rotation. He learned that growing legumes (peanuts and cowpeas) added nutrients (“nutrients” and “protein” were not understood until the 1900’s) to the soil and allowed natural microbes to improve the soil.
George Carver had already been testing plants from which to make other products using “cookstove chemistry”. He developed hundreds of products from easily grown crops and local natural resources, including nutritious milk made from peanuts, flour from sweet potatoes, perfume from the lavender plant, simple crafts to sell or beautify the home, and house paints made from native clays. Dyes which were imported before the war were now expensively produced in other states. He used his knowledge of plants to produce pigments from 28 different plants.
At one point he oversaw the entire farm as well as teaching and conducting research. He learned that planting clover helped the soil and served as an excellent crop for honey bees. It was stated that Moses Carver kept bees for honey to sweeten food. Sugar was expensive so keeping bees not only provided a source of sugar but other products from the hive could be used or sold for extra income. He taught beekeeping at the Experiment Farm and was extremely successful growing the colonies, however it was difficult to convince farmers to rotate cotton with clover species.
Carver did not have enough hours in a day, especially since Booker T. did not provide any secretarial help nor equipment for the laboratory so George was forced to beg for chemicals and basic lab supplies from other private and public labs around Alabama. He discovered how to preserve pork by pickling it so that a farmer did not have to wait until Fall to harvest all the pigs.
Records have indicated that Mr. Booker T. Washington was jealous of George’s quickly rising notoriety as he wanted the credit for “his” Tuskegee. Booker continued to advocate for Tuskegee to receive funding, yet the students were suffering from malnutrition and did not even have toothbrushes. It appeared from faculty and student notes that neither saw benefits from the money being gifted to the college. Yet George never complained and would send heartfelt letters of thanks for any help that Booker sent his way, even basic microscopy tools. In fact, decades later when friends from Iowa State University visited him, the only piece of equipment in the lab was the microscope that he gave him when he left for Tuskegee.
This was not the only frustration that George Carver endured. In traveling for speaking engagements, he was still forced to sleep in the last train car “for blacks” and was often denied entrance to hotels, public restrooms and restaurants, yet George pursued his endless ambitious goals. He made washes and paints out of Alabama clays so that even poor people could paint their homes and make them look prettier. An Episcopal church saved hundreds of dollars using his paint for the exterior of the building as even the cheapest paint was twice the cost of George’s paint. Tuskegee used his paint (at no cost) to cover most of the buildings on campus, yet they refused to provide boards on which George could paint to provide samples. The paint, especially his royal blue, was loved by many and lasted on buildings over 40 years!
George saw that despite offering night classes and short courses, he was not able to reach those who were too poor to travel or were not able to leave the farm, so he decided to take his talks to the farmers. He packed up his samples of soaps, lotions, soil amendments and milk substitutes into a wagon and went to the poorest areas of the county. Morris Jessup, approving of his work, donated a wagon in 1906 which became known as The Jessup Wagon. Carver gave prizes for the best vegetable, the biggest hog and best garden. Between his teaching, managing the farm and conducting research, it soon became too time consuming for Carver to make these trips, so his former student Thomas Monroe Campbell was appointed, and continued to “extend” research to the public for decades and is recognized as being the First Extension Agent in the United States.
One of George Washington Carver’s main interests was using peanuts as a substitute for more expensive foods or hard-to-find ingredients. He developed over 300 uses for peanuts including 30 dyes from the shells and over 45 recipes for meals. For dinner at Booker T. Washington’s home, he created a 5-course meal with fifteen dishes made from peanuts. Even the menu was made from peanut shells. He also wrote a bulletin describing 40 ways of using cowpeas as a table delicacy.
After the death of Booker T. Washington in 1915, Carver was relieved of considerable aggravation and was able to accept invitations for more interviews, lectures and radio shows. He quickly rose to international fame. Recognition came first from his white peers in agricultural research. In 1916, he joined the advisory board of the National Agricultural Society and was named as “Fellow” of Great Britain’s Royal Society for the Arts. He was also awarded the Spingarn Medal, the highest award bestowed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1923.
By the 1920’s George Carver had become a household name. He had created 325 uses for peanuts, 108 Products from sweet potatoes and 75 products made from pecans. He also developed a rubber substitute and over 500 dyes. Some of his products include cosmetics, fuel, lubricating oil, as well as 85 different kinds of food, beverages and medicines. Some examples include meat tenderizer, instant coffee, fudge, chop suey sauce, tutti frutti cheese, mayonnaise, mock chicken, peanut beverage flakes and peanut lemon punch.
He was traveling extensively for interviews and to speak at events. Foreign governments were asking for help with problems, as well as big companies. An oil company wanted to know how to use byproducts which presently were considered waste, John D. Rockefeller wanted his bulletin on soil reclamation, while dentists were asking for help with gum disease. George developed a peanut based cream that when rubbed on the gums halted tissue degradation. Ghana in Africa, was suffering starvation, so George sent them a recipe for peanut milk which was nutritious and cheap to make. He diagnosed plant diseases, identifying insects and recommending nutritious snacks. Indeed, he discovered a way to dehydrate fruits and vegetables for prolonged storage. He was the first to integrate plant ID, biology, entomology and plant pathology into diagnoses.
The public became more aware of Carver, however, after his testimony in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1921. The American Peanut Assoc had asked him to speak to Congress, because he was the most likely person to convince them to install a tariff on overseas shipments of peanuts. This was a difficult trip for Mr. Carver, who had always been frail and thin. He packed two heavy suitcases full of samples and took the train to the Capitol. Naturally he had to ride in the last train car (which was usually dirty and unkempt) and was refused a pullman car (to sleep). He arrived in Washington, tired and dusty and walked to the hotel where the committee was meeting but was refused entrance. He then walked to a place where he could spend the night and returned to the hotel the next morning, still to be refused. Not willing to give up, he phoned his contact and asked him to please tell the Hotel to “allow” Mr. Carver to join the meeting, whereupon he was escorted up, with copious apologies.
Watching the presenters before him, he was dismayed with the curt and uninterested attitude of the committee members who only allowed 10 minutes per presentation. Finally, it was George’s turn, who proudly opened his suitcases full of bottles and boxes of samples. He educated the committee on the many uses of peanuts and how they can be substituted instead of the more expensive or imported ingredients. At the end of his 10 minutes, he started packing his samples only to be asked to keep going! Another 10 minutes then another 10 minutes and more passed, and they continued to urge him to continue. When he finished his presentation and started packing, he was asked to talk about his discoveries with sweet potatoes. One hour and 40 minutes later, he was enthusiastically applauded, in fact they gave him a standing ovation! The tariff was enacted, and George Washington Carver became known as “Mr. Peanut”.
George continued his research with passion and developed an extensive collection of plants, fungi, seeds and flowers. His fungi collection was so elaborate that the Chief Mycologist for USDA was collaborating with him to obtain data. He was receiving hundreds of letters from doctors, businessmen and citizens asking for remedies for ailments, poor soil, uses for plant parts and personal advice. He answered all the letters until his hands could no longer work, at which point he had a friend type the letters (Tuskegee only allowed half time work sometimes). He wrote 44 bulletins and 7 leaflets and sent them worldwide as requested, yet Tuskegee refused to make copies.
One of Carver’s many products he developed in the mid 1930’s was peanut oil which he rubbed on patients affected by polio (then called infantile paralysis). He received patients every day non-stop until the last few months of his life, even though his hands were mostly useless by then. Because so many needed help, funding poured in to establish the George Carver Infantile Paralysis Center which is still in operation.
The Depression hit people hard as many lost their jobs and their homes. Carver wrote hundreds of letters a day and was featured on the radio and magazines and newspaper about using everyday items to make something better to sell, eat or improve their home life. George was good friends and regular correspondent with Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Albert Einstein and Henry Ford. Twice Mr. Einstein offered George a job working in a fully equipped lab with an extremely generous salary, yet George did not think he could “serve the people” as he did at Tuskegee. Henry Ford shared his ideas that waste was not acceptable – some use could be found for anything- and the concept of “Chemurgy” – to focus discoveries of science toward a practical end, especially in farming. They both shared the desire to help the common person, in fact Henry Ford founded multiple one room schools in poor areas and dedicated them to George W. Carver. When he built Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI in 1933, he obtained Moses Carver’s house to honor George’s humble beginnings. He purchased much needed supplies for his lab and paid to have an elevator installed in George’s dormitory room so that he could get up and down the stairs more easily. Ford funded the construction of the George Washington Carver Museum for all of George’s plant and fungal collections, a replica of his 1896 lab, and his early tools and plant drawings. George had displayed 12 of his paintings, however they were destroyed in a fire after his death.
George was in his 70’s in 1938, but still tried to work on the museum as often as he could, while still receiving 30 letters a day. He was given an honorary doctorate from Simpson College as well as 2 other prestigious colleges. The US Pharmacopeia printed his list of 115 plants grown in the county with herbal and medicinal purposes which resulted in more letters. As he aged, he was suffering from heart failure, arthritis, diabetes, anemia, and frequent bouts of influenza.
The museum opened in 1941 and is still open today as part of the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site. George returned weak and sick after a train trip to Dearborn in November 1929 to visit Henry Ford, where he was proclaimed to be “America’s Greatest Scientist” by Mr. Ford, but after several months of bed rest, he became strong enough to return to his museum. In October of 1942, he suffered heart problems and was again bedridden. He died January 5, 1943. True to his personality, he left nearly $60,000 to establish the George Washington Carver Foundation at Tuskegee, which continues to provide funding for Black researchers in Alabama. His birth place in Missouri was designated George Washington Carver National Monument. It is still administered today by the National Park Service.
We all need to recognize the intelligence, endurance and connection George Washington Carver has to us this day.
https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/george-washington-carver/
https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/orangeco/2020/07/29/the-roots-of-cooperative-extension/
https://missouriencyclopedia.org/people/carver-george-washington
“George Washington Carver, A Life” by Christina Vella, published by Louisiana State University Press, 2015.
The Green Vision of Henry Ford and George Washington Carver- Google Books https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Green_Vision_of_Henry_Ford_and_Georg/32Fa9lCDjSwC?q=george+washington+carver+beekeeping&gbpv=1#f=false
