George Washigton Carver

George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver is one of the best known black inventors. He is most known for inventing over three hundred uses for the peanut. He was only issued three patents but countless products of his are in use today. From mayonaise to instant coffee, Carver loved to invent.

Carver was born in 1864 in Missouri. His father was a farmer and slave named Moses Carver. Born in hard times during the Civil war, Carver learned to be sparing and to improvise. His mother was captured and killed by Confederates when he was very young. Carver had no real education until he was twelve, but he taught himself by collecting rocks and plants. This earned him the nickname the "plant doctor."

Being black made it hard to be accepted into college, but Carver made it into Simpson College and later transferred into Iowa Agricultural College. He then taught at the college as the professor of chemurgy and soil conservation. In 1897, Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes, convinced Carver to come and serve as the school's Director of Agriculture. Carver stayed at the faculty until his death in 1943.

While in Tuskegee, Carver developed most