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Christina Vella received a PhD. in Modern European and U.S. history from Tulane University, where she is a Visiting Professor. A consultant for the U.S. State Department, she lectures widely on historical and biographical topics.
Federer discusses how the evolution of the American tolerance for various religious beliefs evolved into intolerance of traditional Judeo-Christian belief.
George Washington Carver (1864-1943), best known for his work as a scientist and a botanist, was an anomaly in his own time—a black man praised by white America. This selection of his letters and other writings reveals both the human side of Carver and the forces that shaped his creative genius. They show us a Carver who was both manipulated and manipulative who had inner tensions and anxieties. But perhaps more than anything else, these letters allow us to see Carver's deep love for his fellow man, whether manifested in his efforts to treat polio victims in the 1930s or in his incredibly intense and emotionally charged friendships that lasted a lifetime. The editor has furnished commentary between letters to set them in context.
Born in 1860s Missouri, nobody expected George Washington Carver to succeed. Slaves were not allowed to be educated. After the Civil War, Carver enrolled in classes and proved to be a star student. He became the first black student at Iowa State Agricultural College and later its first black professor. He went on to the Tuskegee Institute where he specialized in botany (the study of plants) and developed techniques to grow crops better. His work with vegetables, especially peanuts, made him famous and changed agriculture forever. He went on to develop nearly 100 household products and over 100 recipes using peanuts.
Born into slavery in Missouri near the end of the Civil War, baby George Carver was kidnapped by bushwhackers. Ransomed and freed by his owner he later traveled to Kansas at age 12. For the next 14 years he drifted the Kansas plains alone, but always curious, always inventive. A natural genius, he found his calling at Iowa State. Some thought he was the most promising horticulturist in the nation. He spurned prestige schools to teach at all black Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. There his creative mind developed better ways to grow and use peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans and cotton. He significantly influenced agriculture in the deep south. His immense talents did not go unnoticed. His advice was sought by industrial genius Henry Ford and American presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin Roosevelt as well as Senators and Congressmen. Carver died in 1943 after a lifetime of scientific and artistic achievement. Soon thereafter, Franklin Roosevelt honored Carver by designating the George Washington Carver National Monument in Missouri. It was the first national monument dedicated to an African-American and the first to honor anyone other than a president.