George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver

The first time I heard about George Washington Carver was in 4th grade. I read a book about him, and it was a good book. He became one of the nation’s greatest educators and agricultural researchers. George Washington Carver was born in 1864 on the Moses Carver plantation in Diamond Grove, Missouri. His father died in an accident shortly before his birth, and when he was still an infant, Carver and his mother were kidnapped by slave raiders. He was returned to the plantation but his mother was not heard from ever again.

Carver in the field

He grew up to be a big famous person, but first he went through slavery. When slavery ended, he found out about peanuts. He thought to himself that people could do a lot of things with them. That’s when peanut butter was invented. He kept growing them and using them in many new ways, like salted peanuts.

George (standing, upper left) at Tuskegee Institute

George Washington Carver was courageous because he was born as a slave and he was beat a couple times, but he kept working so that he could be an inventor. He was a leader. He led his brothers and sisters out of slavery and earned $100,000.00 for inventing things like peanut butter. He wasn’t phony because he did what he was told as a slave, and he still went and grew peanuts and used them in new ways and got a lot of money for it.

The Timeline of a Lifetime

In 1861: George Washington carver was born into slavery.
In 1891: he began college at the age of 30.
In the 1890’s: he encouraged farmers to start planting soy-beans and peanuts.
In the 1900’s: he developed 300 products from the peanut plant
In 1907: he patented soy-based plants
In 1927: He died at the age of 82.