[music]
Narrator: George Washington Carver's long journey to worldwide fame began in obscure
circumstances. He was born around 1864 on an isolated Missouri farm owned by Moses Carver.
Both of his parents were slaves. His father was crushed under the wheels of a lumber cart
around the time of George's birth. Before George was a year old, he and his mother Mary
were abducted by lawless raiders and taken to Arkansas where they could be resold. Moses
Carver dispatched a Union Army scout to find and return them. The man somehow found George
desperately ill with whooping cough, but Mary was never seen again.
Moses and Susan Carver took George and his older half-brother Jim into their
home and raised them as their own. Orphaned, sickly and newly freed from slavery, George's
prospects were dim. From an early age, however, he was drawn to nature, seen as special. He
was unusually talented at almost everything he tried to do and he had a raging curiosity
to learn everything he could.
Lana Henry, Management Assistant, George Washington Carver National Monument: He spoke about the
time that he would have out in nature and just enjoying the solace, the tranquility
and speaking to the Creator is what he did. And then he took that throughout his lifetime.
Throughout his life he then had this love of nature, which then went into the plant
life and went into how he could take plants and break them down chemically and create
other products all of the benefit of helping people.
Peter Burchard, Carver Biographer: He had what could be called visions. He said, "As
a very small boy exploring the almost virgin woods of the old Carver place, I had the impression
that someone had just been there ahead of me. Things were so orderly, so clean, so harmoniously
beautiful, a few years later in these same woods I was to understand the meaning of this
boyish impression because I was practically overwhelmed with a sense of some great presence,
not only had someone been there, someone was there. I knew even then that it was the great
spirit of the universe. Never since have I been without this consciousness of God speaking
to me through plants, rocks and every other aspect of his creation."
Curtis Gregory, Park Ranger, George Washington Carver National Monument: Being here, being
in the wooded area when he had free time where he would learn about how flowers would grow,
how trees would grow and was very curious and would explore and would ask a lot of questions
from what I understand. And he became known as the plant doctor when he was in the woods
here. And I really do believe it influenced him quite a bit.
Narrator: Because George was often sick and frail, his brother Jim helped Moses on the
farm. George helped Susan with household chores, where he learned to sew, cook and do laundry
and needlework. Moses' influence was seen in George's relentless work ethic, love of
music and his disdain for wastefulness.
Gary Kremer, Executive Director, State Historical Society of Missouri: The paradox is that this
young African-American kid grew up in a household dominated by two rather elderly white people
and for a time he had his brother Jim with him. But beyond his brother Jim, there is
no evidence that Carver had much contact with other African-Americans and to me that is
a very important reality of his life. So he is born in a state that is in great conflict,
the conflict ends but the animosities don't, and he is born into a state that is segregated
when it came to education. African-Americans and whites went to separate schools. And that
would have, I think, a tremendous effect on Carver. There were multiple instances in Carver's
life in which he refers to himself variously as the orphan child of a despised race. And
that has always been a very telling phrase for me. I think in that regard Carver had
a lot of tremendous insecurities. Why wouldn't he?