He was born into slavery near the end of the Civil War, and yet George Washington Carver refused to let his difficult circumstances hold him back.
Honestly, there is not much that impresses me. Money, fame, beauty- not impressed. What does impress me is one’s ability to rise up out of poverty, or other such adverse circumstances, to make a contribution to society no matter how great or how small. The important thing is that they didn’t let their past hold them back.
One such man was George Washington Carver. He was born into slavery in 1864 near the end of the Civil War, owned by a man named Moses Carver. As an infant, he and his mother were kidnapped, possibly by slave raiders. Moses Carver found and reclaimed George; however, his mother was not to be found, and his father was unknown.
Moses Carver and his wife, took George and his brother in and raised them as their own. Later, as a youth, he left his adoptive parents to begin formal education. He was fostered by a childless couple, eventually moving on to another city, and another foster family, in search of a better education.
After becoming the first African-American to graduate from the Iowa State College of Agriculture, he went on to become one of the world’s leading agricultural and industrial chemists and educators, famously known for his many inventions using peanuts.
George Washington Carver didn’t profit from his inventions, rather he wanted to be of service to his fellow man. The epitaph on his grave reads, “He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world."
Now that impresses me!
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