The first non-peanuty related thingy I found out about GWC was that he had a funny mustache. Like... really funny. Heh! Heh! Heh... Then I found out that he was a slave. Then I felt bad for making fun of his mustache :( I mean, he was only working with what he had. He and his family were kidnapped and only he survived the event. He was returned to his master and when slavery was abolished his German slave owners raised him as their own child. Which I think is a little weird. I mean, "Work, dude!" all the sudden becomes, "I love you man!" ... Awkward. But his new "family" encouraged him to be all smart-like. He tried for five years after he graduated high school to be accepted into college, and when he finally was accepted, they turned him away when they found out he was black. Sad times, yo.In 1890 Georgey started studying art and piano at Simpson College, which is in Indianola. That, if you don't remember, is totally where Mr. English graduated from. His art teacher there realized he was basically uber beastly with botany and convinced him to transfer to ISU. He was the first black student there and eventually became the first black faculty member.
In 1896 GWC started working for the Agriculture Department and wanted to help teach his fellow African Americans to farm and lead self-sustaining lives. While out around town with a coworker and a white lady, he was shot at. Somebody thought that him and the white lady had an inappropriate relationship :O How uncool. But anyway... onto the peanuts!!!So after the Civil War the South was pretty much ruined. Continuous planting and replanting of the ever so successful cotton crop had ruined the soil and boll weevils had then ruined the cotton. Bad news bears. Carver set out to find new crops to be successful, such as sweet potatoes and PEANUTS! He found a lot of uses for them, including 100 new uses for that tasty legume. Carver believed in crop rotation and said that peanuts and soybeans would put nitrogen back into the soil if farmers would switch between cotton and legumes. He was SO right. He is also credited for inventing peanut butter. To which Danielley will always be grateful for. But to which the peanuts will always despise him for.
Peanut butter jelly time. Fo sho.Finally, the peanuts got him 1943. They lunged himself into every orifice, ultimately suffocating him and also making him very uncomfortable. Not really. But I think that's how he would've wanted his death to be remembered.Overall, The Peanut Guy was a pretty cool dude. I had no idea he was an ISU alum or that he was ever even in Iowa at all. Go him. He led a pretty sweet life, always feeling for the poor farmer and wanting to improve his situation.
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