George Washington Carver By: Jace Cockrell
George Washington Carver was born 1864, Diamond Grove, Missouri. The exact date of his birth is unknown, because he was born into slavery. George Washington carver died January 5, 1943, Tuskegee, Alabama. When George was a child he and his family were kidnapped. Men were sent to find them and take them back. The only person they found was George. George was adopted by the carvers his slave owners, but moved to Neosho when he was only eleven years old. At the age of thirteen, due to his desire to attend the academy there, he relocated to the home of another foster family in Fort Scott, Kansas. After witnessing a black man killed by a group of whites, Carver left the city. He attended a series of schools before earning his diploma at Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas. In 1896, Booker T. Washington, the first principal and president of the Tuskegee Institute, invited Carver to head its Agriculture Department. Carver taught there for 47 years developing the department into a strong research center. Carver developed techniques to improve soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton. He urged farmers to restore nitrogen to their soils by practicing systematic crop rotation: alternating cotton crops with plantings of sweet potatoes or legumes (such as peanuts, soybeans and cowpeas). These both restored nitrogen to the soil and the crops were good for human consumption. Carver also developed over 300 uses for peanuts and other crops, with one of those being peanut butter. George Washington carver was an amazing inventor and scientist who will always be remembered.