Renowned international Christian speaker and writer J.John examines
the life of an agriculturalist and educator whose influence lives on

To understand George Washington Carver, the great African-American agriculturalist and educator, we must know something of the world in which he lived. Even though slavery was legally abolished across the United States in 1865, it cast a long-lasting and bitter shadow. African-Americans now lived in freedom, but poverty and discrimination continued.

Carver was born in Missouri in 1864 and named simply ‘George’ by the Carver family, who owned his parents. George’s father died before George was born and, when a week old, the boy and his mother were kidnapped. The Carvers were able to ransom George, but no trace of his mother was ever found. In a rare reflection on his past the adult Carver was later to say he started life as ‘the orphaned child of a despised race’.

Now raised by the Carvers as one of their children, George suffered many illnesses, and instead of doing manual labour, developed interests in nature and gardening. Because there were no local state schools for black children, Carver decided to attend one ten miles away. There, a kind woman gave him accommodation and encouraged him to drop the slave name ‘Carver’s George’ for George Carver. (He was to add the ‘Washington’ later.)

As an African-American, Carver found it hard to get anything beyond a basic education.

... This story continues inside Heroes of the Faith #62 Apr-Jun 2025 ...