In 1896, Carver started to teach and do research with plants at the Tuskegee Institute. He taught classes agriculture, and through his the South. Here, farmers had been growing cotton which wore out the soil. He showed farmers how to plant different crops like peanuts to make the soil richer. After a while, farmers did what he said and were growing more and more peanuts than from cotton.
Carvers developed many uses for the peanut. In fact, he found more than 300 uses for the peanut, and he became known as the “peanut man.” He received many prizes and awards for his work .He gave lectures about the uses of peanuts all over the United States and even spoke Congress about peanuts in 1921.Meanwhile, Carver began to experiment with the sweet potato and discovered more than 100 products that could be made from it, including glue for potage stamps.
By the 1930s, Carver had become famous all over the country and the world. He visited the Prince of Sweden and the British Prince of Wales. Thomas Edison asked Carver to work for him at the salary of more than $100,000 a year. The car manufacturer Henry ford also made him a generous offer. But Carver was not interested in money; he stayed on at the Tuskegee Institute with a monthly salary of $125.
In 1940, he gave all his life saving of $33,000 to the George Washington Carver Foundation to provide opportunities for African Americans to study in his field, because for Carver, “Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom…” Carver died in 1943.