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Overview
From Peanut Farmer to President
When Jimmy Carter was a boy, he listened to his parents talk about local politics and watched them live out their Baptist faith in the community. From the fields of his family farm to traveling the world negotiating peace talks, God guided every step of Jimmy’s journey. His unwavering devotion to peace and faith helped him navigate the political waters of the governorship and presidency. This revised edition includes updates on President Carter’s continuing work on human rights and celebrates 30 years of Habitat of Humanity, with focus on the Jimmy and Roslyn Carter work projects in Haiti and more.
Discover the extraordinary life of this world-famous humanitarian and follow in the footsteps of this incredible man of God.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780310738374 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Zonderkidz |
| Publication date: | 08/26/2014 |
| Series: | ZonderKidz Biography |
| Sold by: | HarperCollins Publishing |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 144 |
| File size: | 7 MB |
| Age Range: | 8 - 12 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Gift of Peace
The Jimmy Carter Story Revised Edition
By Elizabeth Raum
ZONDERKIDZ
Copyright © 2014 Elizabeth RaumAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-310-73836-7
CHAPTER 1
Helping Out
In 1976, Jimmy Carter ran for president of the United States, and America went nuts—peanuts, that is. Few people outside of the South recognized his name. Who was Jimmy Carter? He needed a way to introduce himself to the voters, and peanuts paved the way. Jimmy ran his family's peanut business. He grew up on a farm and sold bagfuls on the streets of Georgia as a child. Jimmy chose a big smiling peanut as his campaign logo. He and his family gave away buttons and bags of roasted nuts that read, "Jimmy Carter For President." Men wore gold peanut pins and women wore peanut necklaces. Jimmy flew from state to state in an airplane called Peanut One, and his supporters called themselves the Peanut Brigade. It was nutty.
Of course, there was much more to Jimmy Carter than farming. He fought for civil rights, served in the navy, and had been elected Georgia's governor. He was a husband, a dad, and an active member of his church. It was Jimmy Carter's honesty and willingness to help others that convinced voters to elect him president of the United States.
Today, thirty years after leaving the White House, he continues to work hard and help others throughout the nation and around the world.
"First useful act"
Jimmy Carter learned to help others at a young age from the influence of his parents. His mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, studied nursing at the Wise Hospital in Plains, Georgia. That's where she met Jimmy's dad, James Earl Carter Sr., a local businessman. Jimmy's parents, who everyone called Miss Lillian and Mr. Earl, provided him and his sisters with a safe and loving home, first in Plains, a town of about six hundred people, and then in the smaller community of Archery, Georgia.
On the day that Jimmy's dad, Mr. Earl, took Jimmy, Gloria, and Miss Lillian to see their new home in Archery, he forgot the key. It was two and a half miles back to Plains, so Mr. Earl tried to pry open a window. It was stuck, and he could only open it a crack. The narrow opening was far too small for a big man like Mr. Earl, so he slid Jimmy inside. Jimmy ran to the front door and unlocked it. Jimmy later called it his "first useful act." Nothing pleased Jimmy more than being helpful.
At home in Archery
The Carters' house in Archery was square and painted white. Cars passing by the highway kicked up so much dust that the house took on the brownish-red color of the dirt. The house had no running water or bathrooms inside. Jimmy drew water from the well in the yard and hauled it to the house for cooking, laundry, and washing up. Extra buckets of water were stored on the back porch. The family used a "two-holer," an outhouse (or privy) with two holes for toilets. The larger one was for adults, and a smaller one was reserved for children—it kept them from falling in! The Carters took recycling seriously long before everyone understood its importance. Instead of toilet paper, they used old newspapers or pages torn from a Sears Roebuck catalog.
Although Jimmy's home wasn't big and fancy, his family was better off than many others. During the 1930s, when Jimmy was a boy, the Great Depression left many people jobless, homeless, and hungry. Farms failed, factories closed, and people lost their homes to the bank. Children as young as six or seven went to work, trying to earn a few pennies for food.
The Carter house sat beside a main highway. Often, single men traveled past on their way west looking for jobs. Occasionally, entire families took to the roads seeking a better life. Homeless travelers like these were called tramps. Many stopped at the Carter home hoping to find work or something to eat. If Jimmy's mother, Miss Lillian, was home, she never turned anyone away. She always gave them some food to help them on their way.
One day Miss Lillian was talking to a neighbor. "I'm thankful that they never come in my yard," the neighbor said.
The next time a tramp knocked on Miss Lillian's door, she asked why he stopped at her house and not others.
"The post on your mailbox is marked to say that you don't turn people away or mistreat us," he said. He explained that tramps used a set of rough symbols to help them find people who would help them out.
Jimmy and his sisters checked the mailbox. They discovered a series of nearly invisible scratches on the post. When Jimmy turned to his mother, she told him not to change those marks. He learned from his mother's example that it's important to help others, even those you don't know and may never see again.
As he grew older, Jimmy put these lessons to work. No matter where he was or what office he held, Jimmy Carter never forgot the importance of helping others.
CHAPTER 2Jimmy's Early Life
Mr. Earl loved to play tennis. Soon after moving to Archery, he built a tennis court near the house. He taught Jimmy to play tennis too. But no matter how hard he tried, Jimmy could never beat his dad! Mr. Earl also dug a small swimming pool behind the house. It was a great place to swim, except for one big problem. Sometimes, poisonous snakes slithered from the nearby swamps into the pool. The children always checked the pool carefully before diving into the water.
Jimmy spent most of his time outdoors. He didn't have much in common with his younger sisters. Gloria was two years younger than Jimmy. Ruth, born after the family moved to Archery, was three years younger. Neither of them worked in the barn or fields like Jimmy did. They spent their time sewing, cooking, or playing with dolls. The entire family came together for meals and for church on Sunday. Sometimes, in the winter, the children played board games at the dining room table before bed. From time to time, their parents took them to Americus, fourteen miles away, to see a movie. Jimmy's only brother, Billy, wasn't born until Jimmy was twelve.
During the summers, the Carters spent their evenings on the front porch sitting on rocking chairs or the porch swing. On winter evenings, they lit the fireplace in the living room. Kerosene lamps provided light as they gathered around a large battery-powered radio and listened to the big band music of Glenn Miller or to comedy programs like Amos 'n Andy or Fibber McGee and Molly. Sometimes they heard sports announcers describing faraway baseball games or boxing matches.
During the summers, daytime was work time. Jimmy spent long hours helping his father. Mr. Earl always called Jimmy Hot or Hot Shot. "Hot, would you like to pick cotton this afternoon?" Mr. Earl would ask. Hot always said yes. He wanted to live up to his father's high expectations. "My father was my hero," Jimmy later wrote. "I watched his every move with admiration."
Jimmy got up at 4:00 a.m. when the big farm bell called workers to the fields. He watched farmhands gather supplies by lantern light, hitch the mules to the wagons, and drive to the fields as the sun came up. As soon as he was big enough to carry a bucket, Jimmy's father put him to work hauling water to the field workers. He carried an empty bucket in each hand to the spring, which was usually located at the bottom of a steep hill in a boggy area. Water sloshed out of the heavy buckets as Jimmy carried them back to the workers. They gulped down the water and sent Jimmy back for more.
Mr. Earl encouraged Jimmy to earn money as a businessman. Jimmy was only five years old when his dad sent him to Plains to sell peanuts on a street corner. The season lasted about two months, starting in mid-July. At first, Jimmy sold bags of peanuts that his father prepared. As he got older, he helped prepare the peanuts. Peanut seeds grow into green, oval-shaped bushes that send tiny vines into the ground. Most vines produce about fifty nuts. When the peanuts were ripe, Jimmy pulled the vines. He washed and soaked the peanuts in salt water overnight, and then early the next morning, he boiled the peanuts for thirty minutes and put them into paper sacks before going to town to sell nuts.
Jimmy had about ten regular customers. He also sold nuts to shoppers visiting Plains. Sometimes the men playing cards and swapping stories at the gas stations bought a bag or two. On good days, Jimmy sold his entire supply by noon and returned home with a dollar's worth of change. Other days, the card players teased Jimmy and tried to get him to do chores for them. Selling the peanuts wasn't easy, but as Jimmy later admitted, it was good training. When he became governor of Georgia, he proudly declared, "I have always attempted to conduct my business in an honest and efficient manner."
School
Jimmy began first grade in Plains just before he turned six. On the farm and with his friends, Jimmy felt self-confident. But when he left home to attend school in Plains, he became shy and timid. Jimmy was small for his age, and he wasn't used to competing against other white boys. He knew a few of the children from church, but there were many he didn't know. He gathered his courage, walked up to those he didn't know, put out his hand, and said, "Hi, I'm Jimmy Carter."
The school day began with a chapel service, prayer, and the singing of a patriotic song. Morning classes followed and then lunch. Jimmy's father arranged for Jimmy (and later Gloria, as well) to eat at his Aunt Ethel and Uncle Willard's house near the school. Sometimes Aunt Ethel was slow in preparing the meal, which bothered Jimmy. He didn't want to miss playing baseball or other sports with the boys on the playground during recess. Jimmy waited patiently, but he was always eager to get back to school.
Jimmy could read and write before he began school. He loved reading. In third grade, he won a contest for reading the most books. As a reward, he ate dinner with his teacher, Miss Tot. Jimmy wore his best clothes for the big event. His excitement gave way to shock when Miss Tot served sauerkraut, a pickled cabbage dish. Jimmy had never eaten sauerkraut before. He thought it looked and tasted like a big mistake. Nevertheless, he ate it all. The other part of the reward pleased him more. Miss Tot gave him a framed print of a famous painting by Thomas Gainsborough. Jimmy hung it in his room. The picture more than made up for his struggle with the sauerkraut.
All the teachers encouraged their students to read. Miss Julia Coleman, the school superintendent, insisted on it. Miss Julia often singled out students who excelled. Jimmy was one of her favorites. She gave him extra assignments and reading lists. She awarded him a silver star for every five books he read, and a gold star for every ten. When he was in the fifth grade, Miss Coleman suggested that Jimmy read War and Peace by Russian author Leo Tolstoy. At first, Jimmy thought it was about cowboys and Indians. He soon discovered that War and Peace told the story of a war between France and Russia in the early 1800s. The novel is more than 1400 pages long. Even so, Jimmy took pride in reading every single page.
Jimmy's parents encouraged reading at home too. When the children were small, Mr. Earl sat in his easy chair in front of the fireplace and read aloud. His own reading included newspapers, magazines, and farming journals.
Jimmy's mother read constantly. As soon as the children learned to read on their own, she encouraged them to bring their books to dinner. After saying the blessing, everyone opened their books and began reading. Talking was forbidden. Years later, when he became a dad, Jimmy continued this practice with his own children.
The outdoor life
By the time Jimmy was eight years old, he did many chores on the farm. Mr. Earl grew cotton, sugar cane, and peanuts, as well as vegetables like sweet potatoes, okra, peas, corn, cabbage, turnips, and collards. Jimmy's most dreaded chore was mopping cotton. To do this, he brushed a mixture of arsenic, molasses, and water onto each cotton plant with a cloth mop. The sticky brown poison killed the bugs that ate the cotton, but it also attracted flies and honeybees. The flies and bees followed Jimmy and his mop through the cotton field. Flies stuck to the bucket. By the time Jimmy got home, his pants were so stiff with the sticky mix that they would stand up by themselves in a corner of his bedroom.
There were plenty of breaks from farm work. Hunting and fishing were part of everyday life in rural Georgia too. By the time Jimmy was six, his father had taught him how to shoot a gun. He began with a BB gun and moved up to a Remington .22 semiautomatic rifle. Jimmy joined his dad hunting doves and bobwhite quail.
Jimmy was the best tree-climber in all of Archery, and sometimes, when the farmers went possum hunting, they invited Jimmy along. During possum hunts, he climbed high into the trees and shook the branches, knocking the possum to the ground. The men on the ground tried to capture it before the dogs did.
Jimmy and his dad were fascinated with the lives of Native Americans. They often hiked in the fields or streams around Archery looking for Native American pottery, arrowheads, or spearheads. Winter was the best time to find such things because rain often washed long-buried items to the surface. When they did discover a bit of pottery or an arrowhead, Jimmy and his dad would study it for hours before adding it to their collection. Hunting, fishing, and searching for arrowheads became lifelong hobbies.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Gift of Peace by Elizabeth Raum. Copyright © 2014 Elizabeth Raum. Excerpted by permission of ZONDERKIDZ.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
1 Helping Out 7
2 Jimmy's Early Life 13
3 Black and White Worlds 20
4 Growing Up 28
5 War and Peace 34
6 Return to Plains 42
7 Losing an Election and Finding Faith 51
8 Governor Carter 58
9 Aiming High 65
10 Walking Humbly 71
11 Doing Justice 77
12 Taking Care of God's World 83
13 Keeping the Peace 89
14 Endings 95
15 Going Home 101
16 Building Faith 107
17 The Gift of Peace 115
What Can You Do? 125
Glossary 127
Timeline 128
To Learn More 131
Major Sources 134