From Slave to Student
Desire for Knowledge
Arts and Crafts
A Great Teacher
Practical Researcher
Selected Recipes
Movable School
Overview Top
George Washington Carver rose from slavery to become a renowned educator, scientist, artist, and humanitarian. An innovator and idealist, he had a remarkable understanding of the natural world.
Carver devoted his life to research and finding practical alternatives
to improving agriculture and the economic condition of African-Americans
in the South. There was a lot of unrest in Southwest Missouri at that time. As an
infant, George and his family were kidnapped by bandits and taken to Arkansas.
His mother was never heard from again. The Carvers gave a reward when
young George was returned to them.
They taught him to appreciate nature, learning, and self-sufficiency.
As a young man, George began a lifelong habit of taking long walks and
observing and collecting specimens. "Day after day I spent in the woods...to
collect my floral Beautie(e)s...all sorts of vegetation seemed to thrive
under my touch until I was styled the plant doctor, and plants from all
over the county would be brought to me for treatment."
Starting from childhood, and throughout his life, religion played an
important role. It broke down social and racial barriers for Carver and
was the inspiration for his research and teaching. His beliefs were universal
and didn't conflict with his scientific knowledge. In fact, the more Carver
learned, the greater was his faith."The Great Creator...permit(s) me
to speak to Him through...the animal, mineral and vegetable kingdoms..."
Carver was an active member of the YMCA, from his early college days
to his last years.
Desire
for Knowledge Top After homesteading in Kansas, Carver went to Simpson College, Iowa,
in 1890 to study art. However, as an African American, he was not allowed
to register. Eventually admitted to the class, he proved to be a talented
artist. Doing laundry, cooking, and selling his paintings supported him
again. Driven by his desire to contribute to his people, Carver switched
to agricultural studies. He believed that he could find practical ways
to benefit African-American farmers.
In 1891, Carver enrolled at Iowa Agricultural College at Ames to study
agriculture. His teachers thought Carver "a brilliant student...and
collector." He earned a BS there in 1884 and worked as an assistant
botanist at the experimental station. Carver graduated with an MS in agriculture
in 1886. A skilled plant breeder and field collector, in particular of
fungi, he developed expertise in plant diseases. Carver found time in his hectic schedule to crochet, knit, and do needlework.
He found these activities satisfying and they enabled him to produce useful
items for friends. He had a great appreciation for the world around him,
in particular, the materials found in nature. He dyed many of his own
threads and fibers with natural dyes made from local walnut, mulberry,
and ochre clay. He recycled old burlap and string bags into functional
and attractive needlework. Bark fibers were woven into mats.
Carver collected clays locally and was fascinated by their natural colors.
He refined the extracted pigments and made paints that interested several
commercial paint companies. These jars were displayed in his laboratory,
at county fairs, and in the original Carver Museum. Carver used Alabama
pigments to paint the interior of a local church. He also used them in
his own paintings.
He developed a rich array of house paint colors to encourage poor local
farmers to improve the appearance of their homes. He arranged the pigments
in pleasing combinations, ceiling colors on top, border and cornice colors
in the middle tier, and wall colors on the bottom. The paints were used
on the Tuskegee campus and throughout the area. A gifted teacher, Carver was assigned various responsibilities at Tuskegee
over a long career. Although he was frustrated by Carver's management
and administrative shortcomings, Washington realized that Carver was "a
great teacher, a great lecturer, a great inspirer of young men and old
men."
At schools, on farms, and county fairs, Carver urged others to recognize
their own potential, and that of their surroundings. He was committed
to learning by doing. Students were encouraged to "figure it out for
themselves." They need a thorough preparation to "do all common
things uncommonly well." Carver's talks and writings were direct,
practical, and engaging. His warmth and charm allowed him to develop and
maintain close personal relationships with students, farmers and powerful
philanthropists over the years.
From
Slave to Student Top
Carver was born
a slave on a small farm near Diamond Grove, Missouri, in 1865, "near the
end of the war." Moses and Susan Carver, his owners, reputedly opposed slavery.
However, they needed labor to work their lands and acquired slaves, including
Mary, George's mother.
As an African
American, Carver was unable to attend the local white school. However, he
had "an inordinate desire for knowledge." The young boy attended
school in Neosho, Missouri, and later moved to Kansas. Doing laundry and
cooking paid for his tuition. Given the difficulties confronting African
Americans who wanted an education, Carver took intermittent schooling breaks
in the 1880s.
Arts
and Crafts Top
As a child,
Carver learned to how to draw and paint pictures. Later, as a college student
he enrolled in art class. Although he switched to agricultural studies,
Carver continued to paint all his life. One of his paintings won Honorable
Mention in the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.
A
Great Teacher Top
Looking to attract
the best and brightest African-American professionals to Tuskegee, Booker
T. Washington hired the young teaching assistant, George W. Carver, in 1896.
The two men shared the belief that a practical education would make African
Americans self-sufficient. In a letter to Washington, Carver said "it has
always been the one ideal of my life to be of the greatest good to the greatest
number of my people possible and to this end I have been preparing myself
for these many years, feeling as I do that this line of education is the
key." Carver believed that Tuskegee Institute was the place that could "unlock
the golden dawn of freedom to our people."
Practical
Researcher Top
Applying his
wide ranging research to finding practical solutions, Carver experimented
with seeds, soils, soil enrichment, and feed grains. "Soil enrichment, natural
fertilizer use, and crop rotation" was his message to students and farmers.
Carver developed fertilizers to produce more food and better cash crops.
As yields improved, the creative researcher developed new products from
crops such as sweet potatoes and peanuts. His plant hybridization, recycling,
and use of locally available technology was ahead of his time. Carver's
work on synthetic substitutes for petroleum products and paints was of great
interest to industry. He also patented several inventions. All Carver's
efforts were geared to increasing African-American farmers' economic independence.
Selected
Recipes Top
"Before interested housewives [Dr. Carver compared cooking to painting]...In painting the artist attempts to produce pleasing effects through the proper blending of colors. The cook must blend her food in such a manner as to produce dishes which are attractive. Harmony in food is just as important as harmony in colors."
Tillery, after George Washington Carver.
Carver was a talented and innovative cook. His recipes were developed to make tasty and nutritious dishes using local and easily-grown crops. Booker T. Washington thought that Carver had "great ability in and showing what can be done in the use of foods and the preserving of foods." Using Tuskegee Institute bulletins, Carver shared his recipes with farmers and housewives. Many of his recipes would today be considered "nouvelle cuisine." The recipes below are taken from Dr. Carver's bulletins.
SOUPS
Peanut Soup
Cook peanuts until soft; remove skins, mash or grind until very fine;
let milk come to a boil; add the peanuts; cook 20 minutes. Rub flour into
a smooth paste with milk; add butter to the peanuts and milk; stir in
flour; season with salt and pepper to taste; serve hot.
Peanut Soup Number Four
Boil 10 minutes in a half a cup of water; half a cup of chopped celery,
a tablespoon of chopped onion, the same amount of red and green peppers
mixed; add a cup of peanut butter and 3 cups of rich milk to which has
been added 1 tablespoon of flour; add 1 teaspoon of sugar; boil two minutes
and serve.
Sorrel soup
We hope that every person who likes something new, novel, delicious nourishing,
and appetizing will try this soup. Thoroughly clean and wash about 2 quarts
of the leaves, boil slowly until tender (preferably in a porcelain or
granite ware vessel); rub through a sieve, add your favorite seasoning
and three cups of soup stock to it; thicken with one tablespoon of butter
and one of flour rubbed together, stir this into a teacupful of boiling
hot milk. Add to the soup stirring it vigorously to prevent curdling.
Let boil up and serve at once.
Peanut butter candy
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons peanut butter
½ cup milk
Blend (all ingredients) together, boil for 5 minutes, remove from the
fire and beat steadily until cool. (Break into pieces and store covered).
TOMATOES
Broiled Tomatoes
Wipe; scald; peel and cut the tomatoes in halves or thick slices; if very
large lay on a wire broiler; when hot, add a pinch of pepper, salt and
a bit of butter; toast quickly until brown; serve hot.
Baked Tomatoes
Cut in halves; lay them in buttered pan; cover with buttered bread crumbs,
and bake until brown.
SWEET POTATOES
Dr. Carver's Baked Sweet Potatoes
Scrub with brush and rinse with water until thoroughly clean. Bake like
white potatoes, without breaking the skin. When done break the skin in
one place in the form of a cross, forcing the meat partly out, cap with
butter and serve. Potatoes from 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter, and from
5 to 6 inches long, as the most desirable for baking- the flavor seems
to be far superior to the large kinds, or the round or irregular sort.
PEANUTS
Peanut Cookies
3 cups flour
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups ground peanuts
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sweet milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
Cream butter and sugar; add eggs well beaten; now add the milk and flour;
flavor to taste with vanilla; and the peanuts last; drop one spoonful
to the cooking in well greased pans; bake quickly.
Peanut Brownies
2 eggs
2 squares chocolate
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup melted butter
1/8 cup coarsely ground peanuts
Mix and bake in shallow pan in a quick oven; garnish the top with nuts;
cut in squares.
Mock Chicken
Blanch and grind a sufficient number of peanuts until they are quite oily;
stir in one well-beaten egg; if too thin, thicken with rolled bread crumbs
or cracker dut; stir in a little salt. Boil some sweet potatoes until
done; peel and cut in thin slices; spread generously with the peanut mixture;
dip in white of egg; fry to a chicken brown; serve hot.
Peanut Brittle
3 cups granulated sugar
1 scant cup boiling water
1 cup roasted peanuts
1/4 teaspoon soda
Melt all together over a slow fire; cook gently wihtout stirring until
a little hardens when dropped in cold water; add the nuts; turn the mixture
in well buttered pans and cut while hot. Stirring will cause the syrup
to sugar.
Peanut Chocolate Fudge
1 cup cream
2 cups white granulated sugar
1/4 cake unsweetened chocolate
1 cup chopped peanuts
1 tablespoon butter
Put in the sugar and cream, and when this becomes hot, put in the chocolate,
broken up into fine pieces; stir vigorously and constantly, put in the
butter when it begins to boil; stir until it creams when beaten on a saucer;
remove and beat until quite cool, and pour into buttered tins; add the
nuts before stirring.
Movable
School Top
Washington directed
his faculty to "take their teaching into the community." Carver
responded by designing a "movable school" that students built. The wagon
was named for Morris K. Jesup, a New York financier who gave Washington
the money to equip and operate the "movable school." The first
movable school was a horse-drawn agricultural vehicle called a Jesup Wagon.
Later it was a mechanized truck, still called a Jesup Wagon, that carried
agricultural exhibits to county fairs and community gatherings.
By 1930, the "Booker T. Washington Agricultural School on Wheels" carried a nurse, a home demonstration agent, an agricultural agent, and an architect to share the latest techniques with rural people. Later, community services were expanded, and educational films and lectures were circulated in local churches and schools. The "movable school" was the cornerstone of Tuskegee's extension services and epitomized the Institute's doctrines of self-sufficiency and self-improvement.
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