Hi, I’m George Washington Carver. No, I am not related to the first president, George Washington.

I was born into slavery circa January 1864 in Diamond, Missouri.

Shortly after, slavery was abolished the very next year. This gave me the potential to become the person I wanted to be.

While growing up my parents worked on a farm. I didn’t care to much for the farm as much as I did about the garden. My careful study of the plants made me a self-taught botanist before I even started school.

I often helped others with their plants and nurtured the plants to good health. This is why I was given the name Plant Doctor as a kid.

Going to school was hard for me. Even though I was no longer a slave, many schools would not let me attend. I didn’t attend school till I was 14 years old.

Even though I school started late, I still excelled. I went on to college at Iowa Agricultural College to get my bachelor’s degree. I then got my master’s in agriculture at the same college which changed its name to Iowa State College. Years later I received my Doctorates from Simpson College. It gave me a good set of qualifications for work.  

After school, I continued to follow my passion. I went on to create many inventions made out of peanuts.

I had over 100 products made out of peanuts. I never kept track of how many I had because they were changing daily. My work with peanuts gave me the name “Peanut Man” from the Peanut Growers Association.

I didn’t only work with peanuts. I helped out farmers by better explaining the purpose of crop rotation. I also did a lot of research and made collections of fungi and diseased plants across

America.

As you can see, I deposited over 300 species of fungi during both years of 1934 and 1935.