George Washington Carver Only Invented Peanut Butter
Carver was not merely “The Peanut Doctor.” While he did discover over 100 different uses for the peanut, he was a brilliant botanist, chemist, inventor, scientific researcher and artist. Born during the Civil War, Carver transcended the oppressive social structure to become the first Black student to attend Iowa State University. He was later hired by Booker T. Washington to run the agricultural department at Tuskegee Institute. Under Carver, the department produced pioneering research pertaining to plant biology and helped to maintain financial stability among the sharecroppers in the area. Carver was also a member of the British Royal Society of Arts and an agricultural adviser for President Theodore Roosevelt.
Abraham Lincoln Fought to Free Enslaved Blacks
The notion that President Abraham Lincoln waged the Civil War for the sake of ending slavery has been widely accepted. Yet, the ultimate goal of the war was to preserve the Union, not to emancipate the enslaved Africans of the nation. In fact, during his 1858 debate with Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln said the following: “I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which in my judgment will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong, having the superior position.”
