Our Christian Heritage – George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver was an agricultural chemist known throughout the world. He developed hundreds of uses for the peanut, soybean, sweet potato, and pecan. Some of those uses included cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline, and nitroglycerin.
Born in Newton county, Missouri, known today as Diamond, Missouri. When he was young, he along with his mother and sister were kidnapped by bushwackers. Their owner, Moses Carver, hired John Bentley to go and find them. The only one that returned was George. His mom and sister were considered dead though there was some rumors that they had gone north with Union soldiers.
Moses and Sue Carver, German American immigrants, raised George and his brother James as their own children once slavery was abolished. This was highly unusual during that time, slavery being the reason at the center of the Civil War and tensions still running high. They were affectionately referred to as Aunt Sue and Uncle Moses. It was Aunt Sue who taught him reading and writing.
When it came time to further his education, he had to go to Neosho, Missouri, since Diamond Grove didn’t accept black students. Upon arriving there, he found that the school was closed for the night. Sleeping in a nearby barn , he woke up and found himself befriended by Mariah Watkins, a local lady who inspired him to stop calling himself Carver’s George and to call himself George Carver. She also is credited with telling him:
“You must learn all you can, then go back out into the world and give your learning back to the people.”
Carver is credited with saying:
“Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also – if you love them enough.”
On November 19, 1924, Carver was invited from the Women’s Board of Domestic Missions to speak in New York City’s Marble Collegiate Church. Before the crowd of five hundred people, he declared:
God is going to reveal things to us He never revealed before if we put our hands into His. No books ever go into my laboratory. The thing I am to do and the way of doing it are revealed to me. I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed to me the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain, I would be helpless.
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