today we're looking at george washington carver
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you'll find more resources that go with many of the bellringer videos george washington carver
was an agricultural scientist and inventor who revolutionized the way crops were grown in the
united states carver was arguably the most famous african-american scientist of the 20th century
carver was born in either january or june of 1864. records are unclear as to his exact birth date
as he was actually born into slavery at the time of carver's birth slavery had not yet
been abolished in america he was born in diamond missouri in southwest missouri his owner was
moses carver and before george was born his father giles died then when george was barely a week old
he one of his sisters and his mother mary were kidnapped by arkansas raiders that roamed through
southern missouri during the civil war they were taken to kentucky and sold moses carver however
hired someone to track them down and they did find george and he was brought back to live with
the carver family after slavery was abolished moses carver and his wife susan adopted george
and raised him as one of their own children george learned to read and write although attending
school was not easy as most schools in the area still only allowed white children to attend
so george had to attend several different schools in southwest missouri and eastern kansas trying
to find somewhere that would accept him george was a very frail and sickly child but at a young
age george gained a very strong interest in agriculture spending most of his free time in
the family's garden tending the plants after graduating from high school carver wanted to
pursue a higher education in college but again faced discrimination as it was difficult for
him to find a college that would accept him because of the color of his skin eventually
in 1890 he was accepted at simpson college in indianola iowa where he studied art and piano
there one of his professors encouraged him to go and study botany or plant science at iowa state
university in 1891 he became the first african american enrolled at iowa state in 1894 carver
graduated with a bachelor of science degree making him the first african-american in america to
earn that degree his professors thought he was so brilliant that they urged him to stay and earn his
master of agriculture degree which he did in 1896. soon after carver met booker t washington who
was a leading african-american intellectual and principal of tuskegee normal industrial institute
in tuskegee alabama washington hired carver to establish an agricultural science department
at tuskegee and carver accepted and would teach there for the next 47 years by the way george
was so impressed with booker t washington that he added washington as part of his own name during
these years in the early 1900s carver conducted research and especially focused on soil depletion
or in other words when soil loses its nutrients to grow plants usually because of over-planting
in this case across the south years of planting cotton had depleted the soil carver developed
innovations in crop rotations or alternating what crops were grown in order to replenish the soil
carver's research and innovations aided in helping the south agriculture to bounce back after years
of over planting but carver's most famous work was with peanuts discovering hundreds of more uses for
them such as cooking oils soap medicines wood stains and even milk but i must note carver is
sometimes mistakenly assumed to be the inventor of peanut butter peanut butter was actually invented
by marcellus gilmore edson in 1884. through his research and discoveries with peanuts carver
became somewhat of a celebrity carver traveled throughout the united states giving speeches
demonstrating how farmers could grow more and better crops he was an advisor to both president
theodore roosevelt and franklin roosevelt and even testified before congress on agricultural issues
he became a close friend of henry ford as together they worked to try to find a soybean-based
alternative to gasoline for automobiles thomas edison even attempted to get carver to leave the
tuskegee institute to come and work at edison's famous menlo research laboratory carver even
traveled to india and met with mahatma gandhi and discussed the nutritional value of soybeans
in early 1943 carver fell down a flight of stairs at his home in tuskegee he was found unconscious
by a maid who then rushed him to the hospital but unfortunately he died on january 5th of
1943 at the age of 79. george washington carver overcame racial injustice and discrimination
to become one of the greatest scientists of the 1900s through his work and research in
agricultural science he revolutionized how crops were grown and helped to feed millions of people
so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
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