American Innovation $1 Coin 2024 Rolls and Bags - Missouri

George Washington Carver was born into slavery in Diamond, Missouri. He went on to become the agricultural scientist who helped save the South’s agrarian economy. Following the abolition of slavery, many formerly enslaved people became small-scale farmers, but struggled to thrive on nutrient-depleted land due to single-crop overuse. Dr. Carver knew that his lessons on crop rotation and practical farming methods could help if they could reach farmers outside of his classrooms at Tuskegee University.

In 1906, Dr. Carver designed and built an agricultural school and laboratory on wheels known as the Jessup Wagon. The wagon visited farming communities throughout the South to provide demonstrations and distribute simple but informative pamphlets to those who needed them most. These efforts helped many small farmers improve their yields, earn profits, and save their livelihoods with soil-enriching crops like the peanut, which Dr. Carver used to develop more than 300 products and uses. His research and outreach not only improved the lives of individual American farmers but changed Southern agriculture forever.