George Washington Carver (1864-1943), an agricultural chemist of international fame, introduced hundreds of uses for the peanut, sweet potato, soybean, and pecan. This revolutionized the economy of the South since these crops replenished the soil, which had been depleted through the years of cotton growth. We all probably are familiar with his accomplishments but his life story and how he developed his gifts are not usually known. His story is quite extraordinary.
As an infant, his mother was kidnapped, and he was raised by his aunt and uncle. Due to poor health as a child, he spent much time around the house and in the woods. He let the woods and nature be his teacher in his early years. He later went to schools in Missouri and Kansas. He graduated from Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts. George Washington Carver was also an accomplished artist and even received an Honorable Mention at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. In 1896 he left his faculty position at the Iowa State College of Agriculture to join Booker T. Washington, President of the newly founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. While there he made many medical contributions, including Penol (a mixture of creosote and peanuts as a patent medicine for respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis) and a cure for infantile paralysis.
His discoveries from the peanut (over 300), the sweet potato (over 118), as well as from the soybean, etc., included cosmetics, face powder, lotion, shaving cream, vinegar, cold cream, printer’s ink, salad oil, rubbing oil, instant coffee, leather stains from mahogany to blue, synthetic tapioca and egg yolk, flour, paints, non-toxic colors (from which crayons were later created). What a resume of discoveries. In spite of all of his accomplishments, he remained humble and turned down numerous opportunities that would have made him rich. Carver was committed to helping people and the South.
As a committed Christian, Carver gave all the credit for his discoveries to God as the Creator Who instructed him in his work. Carver named his laboratory God’s Little Workshop and never took any scientific textbooks into it. He merely asked God how to perform his experiments. While speaking before the Women’s Board of Domestic Missions in 1924, he told the 500 people assembled:
“God is going to reveal to us things He never revealed before if we put our hands in His. No books ever go into my laboratory. The thing I am to do and the way of doing it are revealed to me. I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed to me the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain, I would be helpless.” 1
In order to be sure he would be undisturbed in his laboratory, he would lock the door. He confided: “Only alone can I draw close enough to God to discover His secrets.” 2 He shared these observations about God in 1928: “Man, who needed a purpose, a mission, to keep him alive, had one. He could be…God’s co-worker…” 3 and then added, “By nature I am a conserver. I have found nature to be a conserver. Nothing is wasted or permanently lost in nature. Things change their form, but they do not cease to exist.” 4
In 1939, George Washington Carver was awarded the Roosevelt Medal, with the declaration: “To a scientist humbly seeking the guidance of God and a liberator to men of the white race as well as the black.”5
George Washington Carver remarked: “The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible, In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. 6 George Washington Carver was a man of godly character who was used mightily by God for the good of all mankind. He served his God first and his nation second. (See Proverbs 3:6.)
(For more detailed information on the life of George Washington Carver, see America’s God and Country, Encyclopedia of Quotations by William J. Federer.)
Next Week: Black History summary
Dinner Table Discussion Question: What do you need to do as an individual to put yourself in a place to learn and hear from God creative ideas and inventions?