GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER

George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver

Introduction

George Washington Carver, agricultural scientist, educator, humanitarian, and the son of slaves, are believed to have been born around 1864. Mary Carver, George's mother, was a slave belonging to Moses and Susan Carver in Diamond Grove, Missouri, although it is unclear who his father was. Mary Carver and the infant George were kidnapped by slave raiders, and although the baby was eventually returned to the Carvers, his mother never were. Raised by Moses and Susan Carver, young George learned all about the plants and his local community. From the very beginning, he was dedicated to learning, for he believed it was God's will, and as a teenager, he left his home for nearby Neosho, Missouri. There he resided with Andrew and Mariah Watkins while he attended school. Eventually, Carver would become well-known as a science educator and science communicator and for his agricultural research.

Family Background

The only certain generalization about the first part of Carver's life is that it was rough. The accuracy of his scanty childhood memories is commonly mistrusted by historians who otherwise differ among themselves in speculation. The date of Carver's birth, given above, is thus an approximation and perhaps the remainder of this paragraph is the same. Carver was born in Diamond Grove (now Diamond) in southwest Missouri. His parents were slaves. There was an older brother, Jim, and (so Carver has said) two sisters. George's father was killed in an accident about the time of the son's birth. His mother, Mary, was owned by Moses and Susan Carver. Allegedly slave thieves kidnapped Mary Carver, son George, and possibly also his sisters (or had they died earlier?). Moses Carver managed to rescue George; the others were not heard of again. Jim subsequently died of smallpox. Thus at an early age George Carver was left with no blood relatives. And he was nearly dead with whooping cough when retrieved by the Carvers, who nursed him back to reasonable health and certainly saved his life. But the cough had injured his vocal cords and left him with an unnaturally high voice. (Kitchens, 1975)

Carver Adolescence

George lived with the Moses Carver family until adolescence when he began wandering from place to place looking for an opportunity for education. Via several years in Kansas where he did everything from laundry to a try at homesteading, he came to Winterset, Iowa, and there made friends who encouraged him to enroll in Simpson College in nearby Indianola. This took encouraging because he had previously tried a Kansas college and had been rejected on the basis of color (Kremer 1987). But he made the jump and successfully enrolled at Simpson in 1890 with the idea of studying art and music. However, by next year, the “calling” that absorbed the rest of his life became manifest.

He decided to leave the humanities as avocations and transferred to Iowa State College, Ames, to study scientific agriculture. There he was fortunate in becoming a special portico of Pammel, the botanist, and ...