Well I can somewhat understand the assumptions, but they are just that…assumptions.
But it has been discussed but ultimately can never really be proven, that Carver was castrated at a very young age by his adoptive white parents around the age of 7. The reason for this is because they did not want Carver to de-flower their white daughter when he hit puberty and have some lil mix nigglet churr’in tarnishing their pristine white southern image.
Well some would say this is not true, he was not castrated…he was just a sickly child with fever and it affected his vocal cords which caused the high pitched voice.
Personally I do believe he was castrated. History shows through out the slave trade THOUSANDS of men and boys were castrated. It was noted that black slaves were castrated “based on the assumption that the blacks had an ungovernable sexual appetite.”
Many times the master wanted boys to work in the main house and the castrated boys fetched a higher price by the slave traders. Many slave codes or laws also noted castration as punishment for certain offenses based on the severity.
So if he was castrated, how could he be homosexual or heterosexual? There is little to no documentation of Carver’s personal life.
Okay I understand you can be homo, hetero, or bi-sexual in mind and not have any sexual contact; however, if his scrotum or his penis and scrotum was severed at around age 7 and there is no record of his personal desires or him expressing any interest in males or females…Why then is he listed on many LGBT sites concerning black homosexual historical figures?
I feel this is re-writing or making up history. I feel these LGBT sites are falsely characterizing or putting Carver in a sexual classification box as to lay claim to another world genius who was on “OUR” team.
We have an abundance of great LGBT historical figures alive and dead that we don’t need to make one up. What do you think?
-Octavius
As much as I hate to admit, members of this community tend to try to “make” people gay who probably really aren’t. We can’t expect acceptance from the hetero community if we are trying to make them all like us lol! It isn’t fully “accepted” yet to be gay so some straight people take major offense to it when falsely accused. I’m sure there were plenty of great Black pioneers who were gay, just no one knew about it. I could only imagine how devestating it would be to be black & OPENLY gay back then.
I’ve read that it was widely known that he was castrated, however, when an author interviewed him and asked about it, he stated that that period of his life was very painful and that he did not want to discuss it. So, it was hard to get corroboration from him. Also, although researchers have stated that he was castrated, however, a debate continues about when it happened, based upon his physiological development.
I admit, there’s no way to know for sure whether or not George Washington Carver was gay. I was skeptical as well when I first heard of this. Then again, our guess is just as good as anyone else. People can’t really say that he was straight either. As far as the whole castration story goes, I think that’s complete BS. For one thing, he has noticeable facial hair in many of his photos. If he was castrated at such an early age, his body would not have produced the testosterone needed to produce secondary sexual characteristics like facial hair. Unless his facial hair was glued on, I’m pretty sure Mr. Carver’s gonads were still in place during his life.
Castration only results in loss of facial and body hair if done before puberty. Carver’s age was not known and if he was castrated as an adolescent he would not have lost facial or body hair.
Biographer Peter Burchard believes it is likely. He discussed it in this Iowa Public Radio interview. http://iowapublicradio.org/post/voice-george-washington-carver
What does facial hair have to do with your man hood being removed? Do you know what a Unick is?
Side eye. Some women have facial hair and they don’t have gonads. This is clearly faulty logic.
My following comments add a pinch of history and no wisdom to this dialogue.
My father knew George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute and heard him speak. He says that it was common knowledge at the time that Carver had been castrated and that his high pitched voice was a result. My father also said that Carver was never considered homosexual. His castration and complete immersion in his research activities, work and teaching kept him a bachelor all his life.
in what way do you mean it was common knowledge, not many people let folks know that they were castrated. so did mr carver ever tell your father or anyone else that he was castrated,did someone see him in the showere? maybe he was maybe he wasn’t.
very very interesting but people need to read more
Its irresponsible in the extreme to spread such stories without hard evidence. There are people out there who are so embittered and emotional (for understandable reasons) that they are quick to latch onto such tales because they fit their outlook on the world. But the study of our history is a sacred endeavor and we do not need unfounded exaggeration of what was already a tragic situation to begin with to play upon the emotions of the masses who are untrained in historical research. It is documented that Dr. Carver was a slave, which was bad enough, but to make these kind of assumptions when we don’t really know for sure to misdirect the anger and confusion of a people does us a great disservice when that anger is needed to constructively fight the true problems of the present that remain.
They were not his “adoptive parents” they were his owners. He had been stolen as a slave and when found returned to his masters house. It was common practice to castrate male house slaves, especially in households of white women. Forever to be called Uncle never to be called Father.
This was a very interesting read. I honestly wasn’t familiar with George Washington Carver being rumored to be gay. But if the main reasons behind the rumor are a high-pitched voice and being a long-term bachelor, I completely agree that it doesn’t cut it. I did always think it was common knowledge that he was castrated, as that was such a common practice then.
The thing about speculation is that while I’d love to say that we should never really speculate on sexuality without substantial evidence, the reality is in many, many historical (and some modern) contexts you’ll never find substantial evidence, just due to the time period, or region, or other elements of the culture. So while I agree that there’s not much in this case supporting the idea that Carver was gay, we also can’t reduce speculation on sexuality to a simple “I want the best players on my team” mentality.
In fairness, just because Dr. Carver may have been castrated does not mean he could not also have been gay. Bagoas, anyone? Clearly I should read more on this. One article about GWC says he had a fondness for massaging handsome men with therapeutic peanut oil treatments, but I do not know of other evidence either way.
The main reason why people think he’s gay is not because he never had any women, but he lived with a man for a good portion of his latter life (Austin Wingate Curtis Jr) who he also left everything to.
Hate this castration rumor. The Carvers did not have a “big house”. The pioneers in southwest Missouri did not have plantations. The Carvers were childless, so there was no daughter to protect. Slavery was over right after George was born. They did not own him. They raised him without requiring labor of him, and provided him with an education. GWC had nothing bad to say about them.
This is evil to say because someone has a higher voice.
He was adopted by a white family in Iowa that had a daughter. He was castrated a seven years old.In fear that he would grow up and rape their daughter. That why he never developed a mature male voice. There are places on-line where you can hear him speak.. This was a horrible deed, he gave us so much. The truth is “No good Deed goes unpunished “
He didn’t liv see in Iowa until he went to college there.He was raised in Missouri by the older white couple along with his half brother who helped work on the farm.George got to help the lady with household chores because of.his health as a child.
The real concern should be on the evil done.and the pain this man carried on in life.
Carver never married, but at age forty, he began a three-year courtship with Miss Sarah L. Hunt, an elementary school teacher and the sister-in-law of Tuskegee Institute Treasurer Warren Logan, which lasted until she took a teaching job in California.
Kremer, Gary R., George Washington Carver: A Biography, Greenwood, 2011, ISBN 0313347964, p. 68
I wondered on this site by accident. It was my intention to find more information about Sarah Hunt and GW Carver. Most importantly, I wanted to try to find a photo of her.
My reason was fostered by a letter I read which she wrote about Mr. Carver, and how the perception of her family, regarding “darker” Negros, and their accomplished prestige, prevented her from acknowledging their relationship as a “courtship”.
He loved her, and she loved him as well. But his complexion was too dark and his status too low at the time.
I wanted to see “how light”, Ms. Hunt’s complexion was… to try and better understand her justifications.
Out of required choice, it seems she married someone else, to whom she loved not. And in this false love she was driven to commit suicide.
If you get an opportunity pick up this book:
CARVER, a life in poems.
By Marilyn Nelson
Copyright 2001
Front Street Publishers
Turn to page 51.
There you will find:
“The Sweet-Hearts.
Sarah Hunt’s, rumored suicide”
It is a beautiful tribute to the man she loved!
I would be curious to hear your, or anyone’s comments!!!
A new book has been published that may shed more light on the topic . http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/new-book-gives-rare-giimpse-dramatic-life-george-washington-carver-n508151
I wrote the following in response to an existing post that mentioned the name of the woman Mr. Carver fell in love with. I read the excerpt from the link you provided. I don’t believe
Mr. Carver to be a gay man as implied there…
………………………………..I wrote:
I wondered on this site by accident. It was my intention to find more information about Sarah Hunt and GW Carver. Most importantly, I wanted to try to find a photo of her.
My reason was fostered by a letter I read which she wrote about Mr. Carver, and how the perception of her family, regarding “darker” Negros, and their accomplished prestige, prevented her from acknowledging their relationship as a “courtship”.
He loved her, and she loved him as well. But his complexion was too dark and his status too low at the time.
I wanted to see “how light”, Ms. Hunt’s complexion was… to try and better understand her justifications.
Out of required choice, it seems she married someone else, to whom she loved not. And in this false love she was driven to commit suicide.
If you get an opportunity pick up this book:
CARVER, a life in poems.
By Marilyn Nelson
Copyright 2001
Front Street Publishers
Turn to page 51.
There you will find:
“The Sweet-Hearts.
Sarah Hunt’s, rumored suicide”
It is a beautiful tribute to the man she loved!
I would be curious to hear your, or anyone’s comments!!!
Youre so cool!
If he was gay it was because the same bastard who had him castrated at 7yrs old was probably molesting him back then too ????? He went through so much pain and still became a great leader and man???
This isn’t why people are gay!
If Carver was born in 1864 and the Civil War and the END of SLAVERY occurred in 1865 HOW was it that slaves were STILL being SOLD and CASTRATED AFTER 1865? Also, if Carver was supposedly castrated as a TEENAGER that would make it 1878 at the earliest possible date and well AFTER slaves had been emancipated and thus the castration would have never been continued or allowed. THINK!
Actually, if you read many of the letters he wrote during his life, he often refers to some men as being extremely “handsome,” making them a “perfect” “specimen.” He said this about the husband of a woman who helped him financially early in life – and that’s just one example. WE won’t know what his sexual behavior involved. But if “gay” means desires and attraction, it is easy to imagine him being gay. Of course, many heterosexual people reduce being gay to a series of sexual acts. They cannot grasp the emotional/attraction/affectional aspects. This is why some people get discombobulated when young folks know they are gay, long before they have sex.
He wasn’t gay. He was castrated at a young age as a slave/ black child being raised by white parents.
He never married because he basically couldn’t have sex and he alluded to being castrated in his autobiography.
They have recordings of his voice and it’s super high because he was castrated. Ppl thought he was gay because of his unusual voice, but he has never claimed to be gay. He just never dismissed the rumors because he didn’t want ppl to know he was castrated.
I didn’t read all the comments, and I don’t know his sexual orientation. I did read that the white man who owned him castrated him at 10 or 11 years old and brought him in to work inside the house. Interesting.
I am Sarah L. Hunt’s great niece — the only granddaughter of her sister, Adella Hunt Logan. I’m also a historian and have researched and written quite a bit about the Hunt-Logan family.
As far as I can tell, Sarah Hunt and George Washington Carver did have a courtship of sorts in the early 1900s. I believe that he — gently — turned her away. I do not think that the Logan family rejected him because he was too dark, but rather, that it had something (I don’t know what) to do with his sexuality. Sarah did NOT commit suicide resulting from a “broken heart.” Her sister, Adella, however, did commit suicide in 1915 — thus, the confusion. Soon thereafter, Sarah Hunt moved to California, married a widowed cousin, Felix Roland Rogers, and helped raise Felix’s deaf-blind daughter, Annie, and his grandchildren, and she kept in touch with her Logan nieces and nephew in New York.
The Logans maintained their friendship with Carver until his death in the 1940s.
Sarah Hunt Rogers died in Los Angeles in 1955.
Some White people are coming to terms with the level of evil that is there history. Of course the rotten slavers did it..Just like this conservative move to in 20 states to ban African – American, and Native American History. First of all the opinion of the world, is generally Americans , are not the brightest anyway (American grade and HS students are dead last educationally compared to the top 25 most developed countries. And no matter what these consevative idiots think, the world knows the evils of Americas past an present. .. But these Qs trumpees or whatever they, are seeing thedr is no longer a place of respect in the world for them…. And there are many parts of America I have no wish to ever go again or see; full of people that want to return to an evil past. And there dreams will be crushed
Why couldn’t George Washington Carver just be an asexual bachelor with a high pitched voice? That’s a lot less controversial and less painful than the gay GWC vs castrated GWC argument?