5/8/23, 10:32 AM George Washington Carver

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George Washington Carver works in his laboratory at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
PHOTOGRAPH BY VCG WILSON / CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES

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5/8/23, 10:32 AM George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver

How this scientist nurtured the land—and people’s minds

B Y N I C H O L A S S T. F L E U R

To George Washington Carver, peanuts were like paintbrushes: They

were tools to express his imagination. Carver was a scientist and an
inventor who found hundreds of uses for peanuts. He experimented
with the legumes to make lotions, flour, soups, dyes, plastics, and
gasoline—though not peanut butter!

Carver was born an enslaved

person in the 1860s in Missouri.
The exact date of his birth is
unclear, but some historians
believe it was around 1864, just
before slavery was abolished in
1865. As a baby, George, his
mother, and his sister were
kidnapped from the man who
enslaved them, Moses Carver. The
kidnappers were slave raiders who
planned to sell them. Moses
Carver found George before he
George Washington Carver
PHOTOGRAPH BY UNIVERSAL could be sold, but not his mother
H I STO RY A RC H I V E / U N I V E R SA L
IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES and sister. George never saw them
again.

After slavery was abolished,

George was raised by Moses Carver and his wife. He worked on their
farm and in their garden, and became curious about plants, soils, and
fertilizers. Neighbors called George “the plant doctor” because he
knew how to nurse sick plants back to life. When he was about 13, he
left to attend school and worked hard to get his education.

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5/8/23, 10:32 AM George Washington Carver

In 1894 he became the first Black person to graduate from Iowa State
College, where he studied botany and fungal diseases, and later
earned a master’s degree in agriculture. In 1896, Booker T. Washington
offered him a teaching position at Tuskegee Institute, a college for
African Americans.

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5/8/23, 10:32 AM George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver holds soil from a field.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BETTMANN / GETTY IMAGES

There, Carver’s research with peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans

flourished. He made agricultural advancements to help improve the
lives of poor Black farmers like himself. With the help of his mobile

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5/8/23, 10:32 AM George Washington Carver

classroom, the Jesup Wagon, he brought his lessons to former

enslaved farmworkers and used showmanship to educate and
entertain people about agriculture.

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On January 5, 1943, Carver died after falling down some stairs. But his
contributions to the field of agriculture would not be forgotten. Carver
became the first Black scientist to be memorialized in a national
monument, which was erected near his birthplace in Diamond Grove,
Missouri.

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African American Heroes

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