george washington carver 3 paragraph essay

History Classics
Your Profile
Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
This Day In History
History Podcasts
History Vault

George Washington Carver

By: History.com Editors

Updated: April 24, 2023 | Original: October 27, 2009

Pioneering African American scientist George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver was an agricultural scientist and inventor who developed hundreds of products using peanuts (though not peanut butter, as is often claimed), sweet potatoes and soybeans. Born into slavery before it was outlawed, Carver left home at a young age to pursue education and would eventually earn a master’s degree in agricultural science from Iowa State University. He would go on to teach and conduct research at Tuskegee University for decades, and soon after his death his childhood home would be named a national monument—the first of its kind to honor a Black American.

Born on a farm near Diamond, Missouri , the exact date of Carver’s birth is unknown, but it’s thought he was born in January or June of 1864.

Nine years prior, Moses Carver, a white farm owner, purchased George Carver’s mother Mary when she was 13 years old. The elder Carver reportedly was against slavery , but needed help with his 240-acre farm.

When Carver was an infant, he, his mother and his sister were kidnapped from the Carver farm by one of the bands of slave raiders that roamed Missouri during the Civil War era. They were resold in Kentucky .

Moses Carver hired a neighbor to retrieve them, but the neighbor only succeeded in finding George, whom he purchased by trading one of Moses’ finest horses. Carver grew up knowing little about his mother or his father, who had died in an accident before he was born.

Moses Carver and his wife Susan raised the young George and his brother James as their own and taught the boys how to read and write.

James gave up his studies and focused on working the fields with Moses. George, however, was a frail and sickly child who could not help with such work; instead, Susan taught him how to cook, mend, embroider, do laundry and garden, as well as how to concoct simple herbal medicines.

At a young age, Carver took a keen interest in plants and experimented with natural pesticides, fungicides and soil conditioners. He became known as the “the plant doctor” to local farmers due to his ability to discern how to improve the health of their gardens, fields and orchards.

At age 11, Carver left the farm to attend an all-Black school in the nearby town of Neosho.

He was taken in by Andrew and Mariah Watkins, a childless Black couple who gave him a roof over his head in exchange for help with household chores. A midwife and nurse, Mariah imparted on Carver her broad knowledge of medicinal herbs and her devout faith.

Disappointed with the education he received at the Neosho school, Carver moved to Kansas about two years later, joining numerous other Blacks who were traveling west.

For the next decade or so, Carver moved from one Midwestern town to another, putting himself through school and surviving off of the domestic skills he learned from his foster mothers.

He graduated from Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas, in 1880 and applied to Highland College in Kansas (today’s Highland Community College ). He was initially accepted at the all-white college but was later rejected when the administration learned he was Black.

In the late 1880s, Carver befriended the Milhollands, a white couple in Winterset, Iowa , who encouraged him to pursue a higher education. Despite his former setback, he enrolled in Simpson College , a Methodist school that admitted all qualified applicants.

Carver initially studied art and piano in hopes of earning a teaching degree, but one of his professors, Etta Budd, was skeptical of a Black man being able to make a living as an artist. After learning of his interests in plants and flowers, Budd encouraged Carver to apply to the Iowa State Agricultural School (now Iowa State University ) to study botany.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Watch acclaimed Black History documentaries on HISTORY Vault.

Carver Makes Black History

In 1894, Carver became the first African American to earn a Bachelor of Science degree. Impressed by Carver’s research on the fungal infections of soybean plants, his professors asked him to stay on for graduate studies.

Carver worked with famed mycologist (fungal scientist) L.H. Pammel at the Iowa State Experimental Station, honing his skills in identifying and treating plant diseases.

In 1896, Carver earned his Master of Agriculture degree and immediately received several offers, the most attractive of which came from Booker T. Washington (whose last name George would later add to his own) of Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University ) in Alabama .

Washington convinced the university’s trustees to establish an agricultural school, which could only be run by Carver if Tuskegee was to keep its all-Black faculty. Carver accepted the offer and would work at Tuskegee Institute for the rest of his life.

Tuskegee Institute

Carver’s early years at Tuskegee were not without hiccups.

For one, agriculture training was not popular—Southern farmers believed they already knew how to farm and students saw schooling as a means to escape farming. Additionally, many faculty members resented Carver for his high salary and demand to have two dormitory rooms, one for him and one for his plant specimens.

Carver also struggled with the demands of the faculty position he held. He wanted to devote his time to researching agriculture for ways to help out poor Southern farmers, but he was also expected to manage the school’s two farms, teach, ensure the school’s toilets and sanitary facilities worked properly, and sit on multiple committees and councils.

Carver and Washington had a complicated relationship and would butt heads often, in part because Carver wanted little to do with teaching (though he was beloved by his students). Carver would eventually get his way when Washington died in 1915 and was succeeded by Robert Russa Moton, who relieved Carver of his teaching duties except for summer school.

Black History Facts

Black History Month honors the contributions of African Americans to U.S. history. Learn about famous firsts in African American history and other little‑known facts.

8 Black Inventors Who Made Daily Life Easier

Black innovators changed the way we live through their many innovations, from the traffic light to the ironing board.

Black History Milestones: Timeline

Black history in the United States is a rich and varied chronicle of slavery and liberty, oppression and progress, segregation and achievement.

What Did George Washington Carver Invent?

By this time, Carver already had great successes in the laboratory and the community. He taught poor farmers that they could feed hogs acorns instead of commercial feed and enrich croplands with swamp muck instead of fertilizers. But it was his ideas regarding crop rotation that proved to be most valuable.

Through his work on soil chemistry, Carver learned that years of growing cotton had depleted the nutrients from soil, resulting in low yields. But by growing nitrogen-fixing plants like peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, the soil could be restored, allowing yield to increase dramatically when the land was reverted to cotton use a few years later.

To further help farmers, he invented the Jessup wagon, a kind of mobile (horse-drawn) classroom and laboratory used to demonstrate soil chemistry.

Carver: The Peanut Man

Farmers, of course, loved the high yields of cotton they were now getting from Carver’s crop rotation technique. But the method had an unintended consequence: A surplus of peanuts and other non-cotton products.

Carver set to work on finding alternative uses for these products. For example, he invented numerous products from sweet potatoes, including edible products like flour and vinegar and non-food items such as stains, dyes, paints and writing ink.

But Carver’s biggest success came from peanuts.

In all, he developed more than 300 food, industrial and commercial products from peanuts, including milk, Worcestershire sauce, punches, cooking oils, salad oil, paper, cosmetics, soaps and wood stains. He also experimented with peanut-based medicines, such as antiseptics, laxatives and goiter medications.

It should be noted, however, that many of these suggestions or discoveries remained curiosities and did not find widespread applications.

In 1921, Carver appeared before the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on behalf of the peanut industry, which was seeking tariff protection. Though his testimony did not begin well, he described the wide range of products that could be made from peanuts, which not only earned him a standing ovation but also convinced the committee to approve a high protected tariff for the common legume.

He then became known as “The Peanut Man.”

Fame and Legacy

In the last two decades of his life, Carver lived as a minor celebrity but his focus was always on helping people.

He traveled the South to promote racial harmony, and he traveled to India to discuss nutrition in developing nations with Mahatma Gandhi .

Up until the year of his death, he also released bulletins for the public (44 bulletins between 1898 and 1943). Some of the bulletins reported on research findings but many others were more practical in nature and included cultivation information for farmers, science for teachers and recipes for housewives.

In the mid-1930s, when the polio virus raged in America, Carver became convinced that peanuts were the answer. He offered a treatment of peanut oil massages and reported positive results, though no scientific evidence exists that the treatments worked (the benefits patients experienced were likely due to the massage treatment and attentive care rather than the oil).

Carver died on January 5, 1943, at Tuskegee Institute after falling down the stairs of his home. He was 78 years old. Carver was buried next to Booker T. Washington on the Tuskegee Institute grounds.

Soon after, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation for Carver to receive his own monument, an honor previously only granted to presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln .

The George Washington Carver National Monument now stands in Diamond, Missouri. Carver was also posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

“Where there is no vision, there is no hope.”

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.”

“When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.”

George Washington Carver; American Chemical Society . George W. Carver (1865? – 1943); The State Historical Society of Missouri . George Washington Carver; Science History Museum . George Washington Carver, The Black History Monthiest Of Them All; NPR . George Washington Carver And The Peanut; American Heritage .

Sign up for Inside History

Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week.

By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States.

More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us

George Washington Carver’s Life, Honors, and Inventions Essay

Introduction, education background, awards and honors.

In the 20th century, George Washington Carver stood out as a highly influential African-American scientist and inventor. Born into slavery in 1864, he went on to become a renowned educator and innovator whose contributions were critical to the success of the agricultural industry in the United States, particularly in the Southern states. Carver passed away on January 5, 1943, at the age of 78. Carver is best known for his work in introducing the concept of crop rotation to farmers, which helped to increase soil fertility and crop yields. His numerous awards and honors demonstrate his lasting legacy in the agricultural industry and beyond, and his life and work continue to be celebrated today.

Carver faced a difficult start to life that was characterized by hardship and loss. Born into slavery on a Missouri farm, he was orphaned while still young. However, his intellect was acknowledged, and he was sent to school in the nearby town of Neosho, Missouri. At the age of 15, Carver demonstrated exceptional ability as a student and successfully completed high school. He then enrolled at Simpson College, where he studied art and piano, and eventually earned a degree in agriculture from Iowa State College in 1894 (“George Washington Carver”). Carver went on to pursue a master’s degree in agriculture at the same college, becoming the first African American to do so.

Throughout his career, Carver was recognized with several awards and honors for his pioneering work. In 1915, he became the first African American to receive the Spingarn Medal, which was awarded to him by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was for his work in the agricultural industry that Carver received the Theodore Roosevelt Medal in 1923, and for his work in the NAACP as well, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1939, which is the organization’s highest honor. Being elected as a member of the Royal Society of Arts in London, Carver became the first African American to achieve this distinction. Honorary degrees were conferred upon him by various colleges and universities, including Harvard, the University of Rochester, and Tuskegee University.

Carver’s inventions revolutionized the agricultural industry and opened up new economic opportunities for African American farmers. He developed improved farming methods and new uses for crops, creating blueprints for over 300 products made from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. These products included paints, plastics, dyes, fuels, and cosmetics, and his blueprints provided detailed instructions for their creation. In addition to step-by-step instructions on how to assemble the products, Carver’s blueprints included diagrams and illustrations, as well as information on the benefits of the products and how to use them. His inventions were highly sought after by farmers and businesses alike and continue to be influential in the field of agriculture.

The legacy of George Washington Carver provides inspiration to aspiring scientists and inventors from all walks of life. Despite facing significant adversity, he was able to pursue an education and achieve ground-breaking success in the field of agriculture. Even today, Carver’s innovative work in agriculture and beyond remains the subject of study and admiration, attesting to its enduring impact on the industry and society as a whole. Carver’s blueprints are evidence of both his brilliance and unwavering commitment to enhancing the livelihoods of African American farmers. They stand as a symbol of the significance of innovation and determination in challenging circumstances. George Washington Carver’s impact on agriculture and society at large will be felt for generations to come as a result of his valuable contributions.

“ George Washington Carver (U.S. National Park Service) .” National Parks Service , U.S. Department of the Interior, Web.

Agronomic Soil Management Practices
Bee Extinction Causes and Preservation Solutions
Blind in Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” Book
“Cathedral” by Raymond Carver
"What We Talk about When We Talk about Love" by Raymond Carver
Organic Agriculture Funding: Regenerative Organic Agriculture
Environmental Ethics of Pesticide Usage in Agriculture
The Effectiveness of Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture
Application of Biotechnology in Agriculture and Health Care
Summary of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Pollan
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, February 18). George Washington Carver's Life, Honors, and Inventions. https://ivypanda.com/essays/george-washington-carvers-life-honors-and-inventions/

"George Washington Carver's Life, Honors, and Inventions." IvyPanda , 18 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/george-washington-carvers-life-honors-and-inventions/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'George Washington Carver's Life, Honors, and Inventions'. 18 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "George Washington Carver's Life, Honors, and Inventions." February 18, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/george-washington-carvers-life-honors-and-inventions/.

1. IvyPanda . "George Washington Carver's Life, Honors, and Inventions." February 18, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/george-washington-carvers-life-honors-and-inventions/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "George Washington Carver's Life, Honors, and Inventions." February 18, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/george-washington-carvers-life-honors-and-inventions/.