A great American was born this month and died this month. His name is almost unknown to young Americans in public school today. Yet his story is one of extraordinary faith, triumph and accomplishment.
That great American is George Washington Carver, who was born in January 1864 and died in 1943. He was a scientist, botanist, educator and inventor. But he was born into slavery.
With Black History Month designated for February, there's no better time to share inspirational historical works with a generation in need of both inspiration and history.
First, there's "George Washington Carver" by William Federer. It shows how Carver overcame tremendous hardships to receive a college education and make important discoveries in the field of agriculture – guided by his knowledge of the Bible and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Filled with letters Carver wrote to friends, close associates and influential characters in his life, the book allows the reader to explore the faith that motivated this great man.
Discover the life and faith of George Washington Carver in his own words.
A man of slave birth who achieved international fame, Carver advised presidents, Congress and world leaders. He was born a slave during the Civil War, lost his father within weeks of his birth and his mother soon after. He traveled as a young boy to school in Missouri and on to Kansas to continue his education. Carver ardently pursued education, gaining a bachelors degree from Iowa State University in 1894 and achieving his master's in 1896. Soon after, Carver gave up the opportunity of an easy life to teach agriculture at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
The story of this man is an inspiration to follow Christ, no matter the cost. Offered jobs by Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, Carver determined to stay at Tuskegee Institute to help those less fortunate. Carver discovered hundreds of uses for the peanut, soybean, pecan and sweet potato, which revolutionized the economy of the South. But the letters and stories within this biography are more than a list of brilliant innovations by a man who achieved the American dream. They illuminate the faith and humility of his character and the glory that God achieved through him.
Then there is a masterful video documentary on his life – "George Washington Carver – An Uncommon Way."
His journey was extraordinary: though born a slave, by the end of his life, presidents and corporate titans valued his friendship. Millions of Americans benefited from his innovations. His scientific genius is legendary, but less known is his remarkable path to greatness, defined by a life-long passion for serving others. George Washington Carver blazed trails in his personal and professional lives.
This stimulating documentary beautifully traces the valiant life of Carver, chronicling his improbable odyssey from slavery to becoming a household name. "George Washington Carver: An Uncommon Way" is narrated by Dr. Voddie Baucham, Jr. and includes the perspectives of noted historians Peter Burchard, John Perry, George Grant, and many others.
This cinematic film features footage from Carver's boyhood home in Missouri, Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, as well as many other historical locales. This uplifting film inspires as it teaches about the life of a great American hero.
If you like these stories, you will love "Character for Life: An American Heritage" by Don Hawkinson. It's an in-depth study of famous American men and women who exhibited tremendous character in their respective eras.
Here's what other say about this work:
- "Anyone who is interested in seeing a renaissance of morals and virtues in America should thoughtfully read Don Hawkinson's new book." – the late D. James Kennedy, Ph.D., senior minister, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
- "'Character for Life' is biblically sound, historically correct and timely." – Dr. David Roth, headmaster, Wheaton Academy, West Chicago, Ill.
- "Don Hawkinson has touched a vital nerve for the Christian church." – Adrian Rogers, former senior pastor, Bellevue Baptist Church, Memphis, Tenn.
When America was very young, the men and women who cut a civilization out of the New World wilderness did so with sweat, blood and ingenuity.
But they also had something else – they had the invisible but vital qualities of character so necessary for such an undertaking. How fortunate for Americans today that this nation received the gift of many of the Old World's finest pioneers in the law, politics and religion.
Hawkinson brings profiles of those men and women to new life in "Character for Life." Some of those profiled were the spiritual ancestors of the founders of America, and some shaped early culture in America.
Hawkinson has crafted an amazing book that records the true character and nature of early Americans from the political, religious and social justice arenas. It includes well-known figures like George Washington, as well as more "obscure" great Americans like John Witherspoon and Benjamin Rush. Each profile runs six–12 pages and provides readers and students with concise information for reports and presentations.
Among the 37 profiled:
- Sojourner Truth
- Isaac Newton
- John Quincy Adams
- Abraham Lincoln
- Patrick Henry
- Florence Nightingale
- Noah Webster
- John Jay
- George Washington Carver
"Character for Life: An American Heritage" tells the stories of people who gave their lives to the mission of Jesus Christ. Their love for God and country should not only motivate us to treasure our "godly heritage," but also inspire us to discover our role in the "Great Commission."
Then there is "America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations" by Bill Federer.
This exhaustive compilation of statements highlights America's noble heritage. Discover countless profound quotes from Founding Fathers, presidents, statesmen, scientists, constitutions, and court decisions for use in speeches, papers, debates and essays!
Do you know who said the following?
- "I believe that the next half century will determine if we will advance the cause of Christian civilization or revert to the horrors of brutal paganism."
- "Education is useless without the Bible."
- "Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life."
- "To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances… could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree."
- "Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence."
- "Whoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world."
- If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under."
Answers: 1. President Theodore Roosevelt 2. Noah Webster 3. Harvard University 1642, 4. Charles Darwin 5. Martin Luther King, Jr. 6. Benjamin Franklin 7. President Ronald Reagan
These astounding quotes are only a few of the thousands in "America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations."
This comprehensive 864-page reference tool includes over 2,100 quotations from nearly 700 sources highlighting America's noble heritage.
Complete with footnotes and illustrations, this book is a valuable resource to individuals in any occupation or endeavor – but a necessity for today's homeschooling scholar.
The entire book, plus thousands of additional quotations, is now on a computer searchable CD-ROM entitled American Quotations. (American Quotations also contains Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary, the King James Bible, Strongs Greek & Hebrew Definitions and Nave's Topical Index.)
The intriguing people and sources referenced include:
FOUNDING FATHERS:
William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, etc.
PRESIDENTS:
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, etc.
FOUNDING DOCUMENTS:
First Charter of Virginia, Mayflower Compact, Virginia Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Texas Declaration of Independence, etc.
STATESMEN:
John Marshall, John Hancock, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, etc.
MUSICIANS:
Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, George Frederick Handel, Irving Berlin, etc.
AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADERS:
Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King, Jr., etc.
BUSINESS LEADERS:
Samuel Colgate, Pierre Samuel du Pont, John Wanamaker, P.T. Barnum, Conrad Hilton, etc.
INVENTORS:
Johannes Gutenberg, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir William Kelvin, Michael Faraday, Albert Einstein, etc.
MILITARY LEADERS:
Lord Horatio Nelson, Ulysses S. Grant, David Glasgow Farragut, Douglas MacArthur, H. Norman Schwarzkopf, etc.
EDUCATORS:
John Harvard, Elihu Yale, Jedediah Morse, Noah Webster, William Holmes McGuffey, etc.
COURT DECISIONS
Supreme Court of New York, Supreme Court of South Carolina, Supreme Court of Tennessee, Supreme Court of California, U.S. Supreme Court, etc.
SCIENTISTS
Galileo Galilei, Sir William Herschel, Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, Wernher von Braun, etc.
WOMEN LEADERS:
Queen Elizabeth, Abigail Adams, Queen Victoria, Queen Ka'ahumanu, Mother Teresa, etc.
AUTHORS:
Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, C.S. Lewis, Anne Frank, Agatha Christie, etc.
BRITISH LEADERS:
Lord Acton, Edmund Burke, William Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli, Sir Winston Churchill, etc.
In "America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations" you will find quotes such as….
- "History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline." – General Douglas MacArthur
- "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." – Edmund Burke
- "The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world." – Charles Dickens
- "Why, then, should we who believe in Christ be so surprised at what God can do with a willing man in a laboratory? Some things must be baffling to the critic who has never been born again." – George Washington Carver
- "But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own." – President Abraham Lincoln
- "All must admit that the reception of the teachings of Christ results in the purest patriotism, in the most scrupulous fidelity to public trust, and in the best type of citizenship." – President Grover Cleveland
- "These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation....we find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth." – United States Supreme Court 1892, Church of the Holy Trinity v. The United States
- "The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other." – Alexis de Tocqueville
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