Monday Morning Quote – George Washington Carver on What Goes Around

Monday Morning Quote is back with wise words from a man who has seen it all, George Washington Carver.

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong—because someday you will have been all of these. - George Washington Carver

Towards the end of the American Civil War, in 1864, George Washington Carver was born on the Moses Carver plantation where his mother was a slave. One night during his early childhood, slave raiders snuck onto the plantation and kidnapped Carver and his mother. Carver was found alone by neighbors and traded back to the Carvers for a race horse.

Carver returned to the plantation alone and was raised by Moses and his wife. When Carver was eleven, he left the plantation for school. During this period, Carver survived by doing odd-end jobs while pursuing a high school education. Later on, he would be admitted to Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa as the first black student, studying piano and art. He later transferred to Iowa Agricultural College (presently Iowa State University) where he obtained a Bachelor of Science and continuing on to obtain a Master’s in bacterial botany and agriculture.

In 1896, Carver began working at Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute in Alabama; it was there he remained until his death in 1943. During his time at Tuskegee, Carver made many discoveries about and contributions to agricultural economics, discovering over 300 uses for peanuts, including milk, cheese, coffee, plastics and soap, and over 100 products that could be created from sweet potatoes, such as flour, molasses, rubber, and glue.

This raised the quality of life for many poor farmers, providing them with options for crops besides cotton and more varied ways for subsistence. Carver’s contributions were especially pertinent when, in 1914, the boll weevil ruined a large portion of cotton crops, and farmers were faced with no choice but to find other means of survival. Carver was also a major player in crop rotation methods, teaching farmers how to nourish the soil by alternating their cotton crops with crops that would naturally provide nutrients to the soil, including peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes.

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