Writings

George Washington Carver was an environmentalist well ahead of his time. He knew the value of thinking green. He was a man in tune with nature.

George was born a slave at the end of the Civil War (1864/1865) in Diamond Grove, Arkansas. Orphaned as an infant, he was raised by the Carver family, the German settlers to whom his slave mother belonged.

George, a sickly child, soon learned all he could on the Carver’s farm. He journeyed to nearby Neosho for further schooling. Here he lived with an African-American family, the Watkins, for about a year, helping with chores and learning medicinal herbal lore from Aunt Mariah Watkins. This knowledge he added to his love of plants and nature.

Later in life George would put his love for flowers into words, “When I touch that flower, I am not merely touching that flower. I am touching infinity.” He also said, “...flowers have never failed to tell me the truth.”

As he continued to look for truth and knowledge, George went to various towns in Kansas—Ft. Scott, Olathe, Paola, and Minneapolis. He worked to support himself while attending school. He graduated from Minneapolis, Kansas high school and attended a business college in Kansas City where he learned shorthand and typing. It was while working as a stenographer for the Union Telegraph Office that he was finally accepted into a college—Highland College in northeast Kansas. George spent all his money to buy a train ticket to Highland, only to be denied acceptance once he arrived and they saw he an African-American.

Greatly hurt by this event, George took some time away from formal schooling and instead tried farming in western Kansas. Eventually, he returned to school at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. He focused on art--painting the flowers and other plants which he so enjoyed investigating. His art teacher, Miss Etta Budd, saw how gifted George was, and she encouraged him to pursue the study of agriculture. With her encouragement, he attended Iowa State Agricultural College, where he excelled.

By 1896, George was invited to teach at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute—a college for African-American students founded by Booker T. Washington only five years before. George would spend the rest of his life there—teaching, inventing, helping the poor local farmers develop better crops—until his death in 1943.

Booker T. Washington told George, “We teach them to read and write, but words cannot fill stomachs. They need to learn how to plant and harvest crops…”

On a regular basis, George went out to educate the farmers. He encouraged them to rotate the crops in their fields, so the soil would not become depleted of nutrients. He promoted planting peanuts and sweet potatoes as crops that would improve the soil. In turn, he developed new uses for both peanuts and sweet potatoes.

He invented peanut butter, flour, cheese, creams, lotions, paints, inks and many more peanut products. During World War I when the shortage of wheat flour became a crisis, George made flour from sweet potatoes. His motto was to take what you have and make what you need.

“By nature I am a conserver,” George said in a 1928 letter. “I have found nature to be a conserver. Nothing is wasted…”

George Washington Carver knew the importance of listening to Nature. Each day he would rise early and go into the woods. “Alone there with things I love most I gather specimens and study the great lessons Nature is so eager to teach us all.” Now everyone needs to pay special attention to George’s message and listen closely to Nature, as she tells the world how to care for her.

For further reading:

A Man for All Seasons: the Life of George Washington Carver
Stephen Krensky (Collins, 2008)

George Washington Carver: an Innovative Life
Elizabeth MacLeod (Kids Can Press, 2007)

George Washington Carver
Jo S. Kittinger (Children’s Press, 2005)

George Washington Carver: Scientist and Inventor
Barbara Kramer (Enslow, 2002)

Inventor Hall of Fame: “George Washington Carver”

The World Almanac for Kids: “George Washington Carver”