Pat & Cats Heartland Tour 2010

Tired but not drained from the 65 mile ride we opted to rent a car the next morning and keep moving. This is grass country but you won’t find any growing under our feet. The sign said, “George Washington Carver National Monument”. All we could remember about him was that he invented peanut butter.

We spent a very interesting and informative couple of hours there. Born into slavery and taught to read and write by a black woman because blacks weren’t allowed to go to school. At age 11 he moved to a town where he could go to school, an all black school. He attended University at an integrated school in Iowa. Then went on to a Professorship at Tuskegee in Alabama. Yes he did invent peanut butter but it was in the process of teaching farmers about rotating crops. Cotton had completely depleted the soils. He became a wold renowned Botanist. He even appeared before the US Congress.

 

His Mother’s master, Moses Carver, wasn’t a wealthy farmer? He paid $700 for her. We assume he bought her for breeding? He expected to fetch a good price for G. W. but that damned Civil War thing runied the slaves trade.