George Washington Carver: Agricultural Leaders

Joshua Driskell
Ms. Brown
Basic Agricultural Science
5 December 2015
George Washington Carver I chose to do my Agricultural leaders paper on George Washington Carver. Carver was born in either 1864 or 1865. He does not have an exact birth date because he was born into slavery, and his masters did not care to remember his birth date. Carver was born in the city Diamond Grove, Newton County which is now known as Diamond County, Missouri. Carver had a German-American immigrant as his master. His name was Moses Carver, and he had purchased Carver’s parents $700 combined, and while his parents had another 11 children, they all died at a young age. Carver was only a week old when he was kidnapped by raiders along with his parents. The kidnappers

Washington to be the head of the agriculture department at the Tuskegee Institute. Carver would end up teaching there from 1896 to 1943, his death. He taught farming techniques, researched crop products, showed many alternative cash crops, and how to manage crop rotations. Washington gave Carver 2 rooms and a large salary in order to convince him to teach here. Some of the faculty members didn’t really enjoy Carver’s presence, and thought he didn’t deserve the things he received. Carver was in control of the Agricultural experiment station farms. Carver made money for institute by selling farm produce. Carver didn’t enjoy some of his work, though and even complained to the institute that the letter writing and actual work is just too much. In the year 1904, Carver was reported for “lying” about produce from the chickens, and was talked to by Booker T. Washington about the issue. Carver responded by threatening to resign if they felt he was lying. The issue was handled by Booker T. Washington and Carver never resigned. Carver would go on to threaten to resign many times, for example when he was given a summer assignment to teach or when they redid the agricultural programs. Booker was able to handle each situation without Carver

In Washington’s 1911 memoir: My Larger Education: Being Chapters from My Experience, Carver was given praise. Washington claimed carver to be “one of the most thoroughly scientific men of the [Black] race who I am aquatinted.” The next leader of the Tuskegee institute, who took over after Washington’s 1915 death, was a lot less strict and demanding as Washington. In 1930, Carver gave a very emotional speech at the 1930 Conclave in Tuskegee, Alabama. Carver started to work on and researching new uses for peanuts, pecans, sweet potatoes, Soybeans, and other crops. Carver also made his assistants research the existing uses of these crops. Carver became one of the most known African-Americans in the early 1900’s due to his desire to learn and overall teaching ability. Carver made his own techniques to improve soil that had been used by using cotton. Carver told farmers to restore their nitrogen, with the help of other agriculturists, by using systematic crop rotation. Carver made a rotation of crops using soybeans, cowpeas, peanuts, and sweet potatoes. This method made the crops and soil with nitrogen and they were good for humans to eat. Carver also made alternative cash crops. Carver trained the farmers how to properly use his methods of