George Washington Carver

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George Washington Carver

Q: Who was George Washington Carver?

George Washington Carver was an American agricultural chemist, agronomist, and experimenter whose development of new products derived from peanuts (groundnuts), sweet potatoes , and soybeans helped revolutionize the agricultural economy of the South .

Q: What was George Washington Carver’s childhood like?

George Washington Carver was born into slavery, the son of an enslaved woman named Mary, owned by Moses Carver. During the American Civil War , George and Mary were kidnapped and taken away to be sold. Moses Carver located George but not Mary, and George lived on the Carver property until about age 10 or 12.

Q: How was George Washington Carver educated?

In his late 20s George Washington Carver obtained a high-school education in Kansas while working as a farmhand. He received a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science (1894) and a master of science degree (1896) from Iowa State Agricultural College (later Iowa State University ).

Q: How did George Washington Carver change the world?

George Washington Carver’s work, which began for the sake of poor Black sharecroppers , led to a better life for the entire South by liberating it from its environmentally destructive dependence on cotton . His efforts brought about a significant advance in agricultural training in an era when agriculture was the largest single occupation of Americans.

American agricultural chemist

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Nov 22, 2024 • Article History

Quick Facts

Born:: 1861?, near Diamond Grove, Missouri, U.S.

Died:: January 5, 1943, Tuskegee, Alabama

Subjects Of Study:: peanut; sweet potato; chemical product; food processing

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Who was George Washington Carver?

What was George Washington Carver’s childhood like?

How was George Washington Carver educated?

How did George Washington Carver change the world?

George Washington Carver (born 1861?, near Diamond Grove, Missouri, U.S.—died January 5, 1943, Tuskegee, Alabama) was a revolutionary American agricultural chemist, agronomist, and experimenter who was born into slavery and sought to uplift Black farmers through the development of new products derived from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. His work helped transform the stagnant agricultural economy of the South after the American Civil War. For most of his career he taught and conducted research at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Tuskegee, Alabama. Carver was the son of an enslaved woman named Mary, who was owned ...(100 of 1525 words)

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