2017-01-10 Tue

“Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom” – George Washington Carver.

Known as the Peanut Man of India George Washington Carver was one of the best-known African-Americans of his era.

Born on 10th January 1864, Carver grew up in Missouri with the white family – Moses and Susan Carver that originally kept his mother as a slave. His mother disappeared while George was an infant. The childless Carvers raised him and his brother as their own children.

As he was not allowed to attend the neighbourhood school because of his colour, he began a series of moves through the Midwest, seeking more education. He supported himself cooking, doing laundry, and homesteading before finally enrolling at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, in 1890.

Already acknowledged as a brilliant scientific investigator at Iowa State Agricultural College in Ames, Carver accepted Booker T. Washington’s invitation to assume the position of director of the Agriculture Department at Tuskegee Institute in 1897.

George Washington Carver spent 20 years developing hundreds of products derived from peanuts. Carver’s work with peanuts in the 1890s proved much more valuable to African-American farmers in the Deep South. Derivation more than 300 viable products from the peanut, about 170 from the sweet potato and 60 from the pecan is considered to be one of the most notable achievements of Carver.

His work enriched the lives of countless sharecroppers, and later in life, he was a potent source of inspiration as a symbol of African-American achievement.

USPS issued two stamps in the honour of this gem of a person. A 3 cent stamp was issued in the year of 1948 and a 32 cent stamp issued in 1998. Both the stamps depict his portrait.