WEBVTT 1 00:00:11.900 --> 00:00:13.300 You 2 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:30.000 3 00:00:46.760 --> 00:00:53.080 George Washington Carver was born a slave, but he became one of America's most honored men 4 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:57.600 He was an artist who taught himself to paint and 5 00:00:58.520 --> 00:01:02.180 He was good enough to make art his life work if he'd wanted to 6 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:06.340 But his life work was teaching 7 00:01:07.420 --> 00:01:12.080 For more than 40 years he taught at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama 8 00:01:12.080 --> 00:01:16.380 he helped black students better their lives through education and 9 00:01:17.340 --> 00:01:20.200 Showed black farmers how to make better use of their land 10 00:01:21.160 --> 00:01:27.560 He persuaded them to grow peanuts instead of just cotton peanuts enriched the soil 11 00:01:27.740 --> 00:01:29.780 cotton wore it out and 12 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:34.980 To help black farmers even more he experimented with plants and soils 13 00:01:34.980 --> 00:01:40.980 trying to find ways of improving them of using them better and 14 00:01:40.980 --> 00:01:48.840 In his laboratory he found hundreds of ways farmers and industry could use peanuts and sweet potatoes, too 15 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:50.980 George Washington Carver 16 00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:54.140 scientist artist teacher 17 00:01:54.660 --> 00:01:57.440 Some people today think he wasn't militant enough 18 00:01:57.740 --> 00:02:01.420 Some people think he didn't fight hard enough for the rights of black people 19 00:02:02.080 --> 00:02:04.580 Well, he did what he thought was best 20 00:02:04.580 --> 00:02:09.900 Using his mind and his hands. He helped millions of people black and white 21 00:02:10.720 --> 00:02:16.820 His long busy life was an upward struggle that began when he was just a child 22 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:51.340 Around the little country town where he lived neighbors called him the plant doctor 23 00:02:52.340 --> 00:02:57.720 Sometimes they would give him sickly houseplants and he would take them to his secret garden to make them well-off 24 00:02:57.720 --> 00:02:57.720 25 00:02:57.720 --> 00:02:57.720 26 00:02:57.720 --> 00:02:57.720 27 00:02:57.720 --> 00:02:58.140 Again 28 00:03:27.720 --> 00:03:28.180 You 29 00:04:08.060 --> 00:04:12.420 George and his brother Jim were orphans who now lived with Sue and Moses Carver 30 00:04:13.340 --> 00:04:17.480 Their mother Mary had been a slave on the Carver farm 31 00:04:18.060 --> 00:04:24.000 Moses Carver didn't like slavery, but there had been no other way for him to get the help his wife needed 32 00:04:25.100 --> 00:04:27.440 But Mary was no longer with them 33 00:04:27.440 --> 00:04:27.700 She was a slave to the farmer and she was a slave to the farmer 34 00:04:27.700 --> 00:04:30.240 She had been kidnapped by slave raiders 35 00:04:33.760 --> 00:04:38.700 George often thought about what happened to his mother that terrible night when he was just a baby 36 00:04:57.700 --> 00:04:57.700 37 00:05:04.120 --> 00:05:06.140 George never saw her again 38 00:05:09.140 --> 00:05:15.860 Now the days of slavery were passed and the Carvers were raising George and Jim as they would raise their own children 39 00:05:36.840 --> 00:05:41.480 George wasn't too strong, so he was usually given the easier jobs on the farm 40 00:05:42.980 --> 00:05:46.480 His brother Jim usually did the heavier work 41 00:05:49.200 --> 00:05:50.600 You 42 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:16.480 43 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:32.120 George often watched Sue Carver knitting 44 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:39.960 He knew he could do anything with his hands so he tried 45 00:06:45.790 --> 00:06:51.110 He made his own needles out of large turkey feathers stripped bare and 46 00:06:51.110 --> 00:06:57.130 For yarn he unraveled a sock and he imitated the movements he had seen Sue Carver make 47 00:07:20.470 --> 00:07:24.770 When his chores were done George would spend his time exploring 48 00:07:25.550 --> 00:07:26.190 observing 49 00:07:26.190 --> 00:07:32.210 Finding out all he could about things around him 50 00:07:32.890 --> 00:07:36.790 George often visited a neighbor's house where he was allowed in the kitchen 51 00:07:36.790 --> 00:07:36.850 He would often visit a neighbor's house where he was allowed in the kitchen 52 00:07:46.150 --> 00:07:50.910 One day he went beyond the kitchen 53 00:07:53.550 --> 00:07:57.350 Into the parlor 54 00:08:07.330 --> 00:08:09.570 There were paintings on the wall 55 00:08:10.550 --> 00:08:13.310 The first paintings George had ever seen 56 00:08:40.370 --> 00:08:41.770 You 57 00:09:09.570 --> 00:09:09.570 58 00:09:24.950 --> 00:09:27.690 George decided he would learn to paint 59 00:09:28.650 --> 00:09:32.530 He made his own brush and he made his own paints 60 00:09:32.530 --> 00:09:35.570 He painted on anything he could find 61 00:09:36.490 --> 00:09:37.090 and 62 00:09:37.090 --> 00:09:40.090 As usual he was using his mind and his head 63 00:10:07.090 --> 00:10:07.150 You 64 00:10:37.090 --> 00:10:37.090 65 00:10:40.950 --> 00:10:48.490 George was always trying to find answers to problems always finding interesting things to bring home and ask about 66 00:11:07.090 --> 00:11:07.130 You 67 00:11:18.670 --> 00:11:21.430 There was so much he wanted to learn 68 00:11:22.210 --> 00:11:25.790 But because he was black he couldn't go to the nearby school 69 00:11:26.450 --> 00:11:29.890 So he decided to teach himself to read from an old spelling book 70 00:11:38.510 --> 00:11:41.670 He learned every word in that book 71 00:11:51.270 --> 00:11:57.510 As he found other books to read his desire to become educated grew stronger and stronger 72 00:11:57.510 --> 00:12:03.130 Till finally one day when he was in his early teens he knew what he had to do 73 00:12:07.090 --> 00:12:13.230 He decided to leave the Carvers and walk to a small town about eight miles away where there was a school for black children 74 00:12:16.730 --> 00:12:20.010 For the first time he would be on his own 75 00:12:20.850 --> 00:12:23.650 Many struggles many difficulties were ahead for him 76 00:12:24.710 --> 00:12:29.210 But one day the whole world would admire this courageous quiet genius 77 00:12:32.350 --> 00:12:34.110 George Washington Carver 78 00:12:45.010 --> 00:12:46.410 You