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When I was young, I said to God,
God, tell me the mystery of the universe. 
But God answered, that knowledge is
for me alone. So I said, God, tell me
the mystery of the peanut. Then God
said, well, George, that's more nearly your size.
~George Washington Carver~

George Washington Carver was an educator, agricultural/food scientist, and farmer. He devoted his life to research projects that would benefit southern agriculture. The products Carver derived from the peanut and soybean changed the South's economy by freeing it from depending on cotton.

Carver was born a slave in the spring of 1864 in Diamond Grove, Missouri. He was a baby when he and his mother were kidnapped from their owner's plantation by slave raiders. His mother was sold and shipped away. Carver was ransomed by his master for a race horse.

Carver earned a high school education while he was a farmer. He was the first black student admitted to Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa. Then he went to Iowa Agricultural College, which is now called Iowa State University. He worked as the school janitor while he studying for his degree in agricultural science. He received his degree in 1894. In 1896, he received a master's degree from the same school and became the first African American to teach there. He soon became famous and Booker T. Washington offered him a place at Tuskegee.

Carver changed the southern agricultural world by proving that 300 products could be derived from the peanut. By 1938, peanuts had become a $200 million industry and a chief product of Alabama. Carver also showed that 100 different products could be derived from the sweet potato.

Only three of Carver's discoveries were ever patented. When he was at Tuskegee, he said, "God gave them to me, how can I sell them to someone else?" In 1938, he donated $30,000 of his savings to the George Washington Carver Foundation. And in his will, he left the rest of the estate to the organization so his work might be carried on after his death. Carver was never married, and he died on January 5, 1943.

I am no great person. I am no great 
scientist. I have only been able to point
the way in a few things. After me will come
those who read and interpret the signs,
the great of the world. I am only the trailblazer.
~George Washington Carver~

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