Vol.15 No.4

George Washington, Carver The Plant Doctor
Few have been so entrusted by God with nature’s secrets.
By Amarachi Ananaba

The next time you pick up one of your favorite peanut products, remember George Washington Carver. A famous chemist, Carver helped change the view about this small, seemingly insignificant legume.

Born to slave parents in 1864, George was still an infant when he, along with his mother and sister, were kidnapped by slave raiders. Miraculously, he was saved alone and raised by his owners. He lived with Moses and Susan Carver near Diamond Grove, Missouri, and had a life that other slaves could only dream of. Although the Carvers were White, George was treated as family, rather than property.

As a boy, George enjoyed nature. He walked through the woods, admiring the lofty trees and examining the forest floor. He was creative too. Not knowing the names of certain plants and trees, he often composed his own. But George wasn’t just interested in nature, he conversed with the God of Creation. When a neighbor child taught him how to pray, he’d go to the woods and talk to God.

HARD TIMES

Learning for “colored” children in the 1800s was limited because of racial discrimination. George was not afforded a formal education until later in life, but the desire to learn burned within him. “I want to learn to mix flowers,” He said. “If only I could go to school.” Spending his time studying plants, and bringing sickly, dying, or frail ones to vibrant life, was a joy. He became known as the “Plant Doctor.” White farmers from all over Diamond Grove sought his help for their plants.

George grew up when the bitterness of slavery and oppression of Blacks festered. Despite these circumstances he sought God’s guidance. From the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-29, heard when only a boy, he understood his duty to use his gifts for God.

At twelve he began his formal education at a colored school in Missouri established by the Freedman’s Bureau. There, he met Andrew and Mariah Watkins who took him into their home and introduced him to the Methodist Church.

In search of a better education, George journeyed to Fort Scot, Kansas, where he came face to face with racism.

“Where did you get those books, Boy?” Two White men confronted him, on his way home.

Lowering his eyes toward the ground, he replied, “These are my school books, Sir.”

The two men assumed he stole the books, so they beat him and then took his books.

Sometime later, a Black man was accused of raping a twelve-year old girl. Chanting a wicked death knell, crowds surrounded the jail; masked men dragged the man outside, hung him, then burned his body. Hidden in the shadows, George was shocked as he watched this horror, and he left Fort Scot.

In Olathe, Kansas he settled in with ex-slaves Ben and Lucy Seymour, who taught him to master the laundering trade. He learned to wash and iron delicate garments for the wealthy. He even opened his own laundry shop while still attending school, and used his extra money for plant experiments. When he lost his business, doubts soon arose in his mind about finishing school. However, he remembered Philippians 4:13: “ I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

He was eventually accepted to Highland College in Kansas in 1885. Arriving in a new suit and with typewriter in hand, he entered the admissions office. When the dean saw him, she exclaimed, “But you’re colored! We don’t accept colored boys at Highland.” Crushed, George wondered if going to college was God’s will.

By 1889 he met another White family, the Millholland’s, who helped him enroll at Simpson College in Iowa. This time he entered the admissions office humbly and prayerfully, and he was accepted.

WORKING FOR “THE LEAST”

Battling with the decision of selecting a college major, he read “…Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” Matthew 25:45. At that time, who were less than his own people? He finally chose agriculture, knowing it would provide income.

He earned a Master’s Degree from Iowa State University in 1896 and afterward accepted an offer from Booker T. Washington to work at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama as director of agricultural research.

George often emphasized God’s authorship in nature. “You must learn to read the great and loving God out of all forms of the existence He has created,” he said to his students. “Converse with God. Oh, what a joy will come to you.…God is so lavish in the display of His handiwork!”

Outside the classroom he traveled, holding seminars and lectures for farmers. He also wrote a manual for Black children, explaining the importance of teaching them agriculture.

Though he faced discrimination from Whites as well as Blacks, George loved people and had friends of many races. “Thank God I love humanity; complexion doesn’t interest me one bit,” he wrote. He encouraged both Black and White pen pals with keys to true success: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” 2 Corinthians 3:5. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.

GOD’S SCIENTIST

Carver learned, while at Tuskegee, that Southern farmers were facing major problems with their crops. The soil was depleted from cotton overcropping, but soon enough he developed the crop-rotation method. This led to interchanging cotton production with soybeans, pecans, sweet potatoes, and peanuts.

Through wisdom from God, he successfully discovered 325 by-products from peanuts, 108 from sweet potatoes, and 75 from pecans. He even learned the nutritional importance of peanuts, calling them muscle builders.

When asked how he gained his knowledge, he replied, “from the old book, the Bible.”

Puzzled, the inquirer asked how the Bible told of peanuts.

“It tells about the God who made the peanut,” Carver responded. “ I asked Him to show me what to do with the peanut, and He did.”

He dedicated his life to the betterment of his race and America. He understood God’s hand in nature and wanted others to understand it as well. “I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting system, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”

Sources:

• Sam Wellman, George Washington Carver, Barbour Publishing, Inc., Ohio. www.gospelcom.net/chi/fun/Factoid/fact007.
• www.answersingenesis.org
• www.nwf.org/internationalwildlife/1998/esayso98

* Amarachi Ananaba is a student at Hartland College. She enjoys reading, singing, and traveling.