1861?-1943

American Chemist and Agronomist

George Washington Carver is credited with the development of innovative crop-rotation methods that preserved soils and allowed sustainable levels of increased agricultural productivity. During a long and productive scientific and teaching career, Carver discovered hundreds of uses for crops and his work revitalized a Southern economy left barren and depressed by war and land mismanagement.

Carver was born a slave in Missouri. A frail and sickly child, he was orphaned during the Civil War, and nursed back to health by his former owners, Moses and Susan Carver. Young George lived with the Carvers until he was 10 or 12, when he left to pursue an education at a segregated school nearby. He lived with a black family, doing chores for room and board. Carver was well into his twenties before he was able to move from a one-room schoolhouse to become...