George Washington Carver

George was born on a farm near Diamond Grove, Missouri, in the 1860s. He was born a slave. When George was a little baby, he and his mother were stolen by people who wanted to sell them. His master found George and brought him back.

George belonged to the Carver family. The Carvers didn't like owning slaves and treated George like a son. When George was done with his chores, he explored the woods around their farm. He liked to examine the rocks, plants and animals that he found.

The Carvers knew that George was very smart. They brought in a tutor to teach him, but soon George learned everything he could from the tutor. George went away to a school for African Americans. He finished school and wanted to go to college.

He went to Simpson College in Iowa first. He liked painting plants and flowers. He was a good painter, but his teacher told him he should probably study botany if he wanted to make a living. Botany is the study of plants.

George went to Iowa State College to study botany and graduated in 1894. He continued to teach there and received a master's degree in science in 1896. While he was at Iowa State, he received a letter from Booker T. Washington, an African-American leader. Washington asked George to come teach at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

George liked teaching at the Tuskegee Institute. The institute was one of few schools for African Americans during this time. He was a good teacher and his students liked him. He taught botany, chemistry and agriculture.

When he was not teaching, George was busy with experiments. He tested the different effects various crops had on soil. Crops are plants that are grown for food or other uses.

Through his experiments, he learned that crops such as peanuts, sweet potatoes and soybeans kept the soil healthy. Most of the farmers in the southern United States grew cotton. The cotton took away the soil's richness, so George talked to the farmers about planting different crops.

George knew that farmers needed good reasons to start planting crops other than cotton. He performed many experiments with peanuts and sweet potatoes. He found hundreds of new uses for them. He made peanut butter, shampoo, glue, dyes and many other products using peanuts.

Peanut farmers and organizations asked George to speak to the United States Congress in 1921. He told Congress about how important peanuts could be to farmers. He showed them hundreds of uses for peanuts. Congress was impressed and George became famous.

George continued his research on peanuts, sweet potatoes and other plants. He won many awards. He received the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Medal for science and the Springarn Medal. A movie about his life was made in 1938.

Until his death in 1943, George kept speaking about his research and helping farmers. Rather than receiving fame and fortune, he was happy helping others. To George, service was the measure of success.