9781422283264

Chapter 1

George Washington Carver

Born: 1864 (?))

T

he exact date of George Wash- ington Carver’s birth is uncer- tain. He was born a slave in Mis- sissippi sometime around 1864.

Died: 1963 Nationality: American Achievements:

This was toward the end of the American Civil War and Carver’s mother, Mary, was owned by Mr. Moses Carver. Carver’s father was a slave owned by a neighbor, but he was killed in an accident before Carver was born. Carver and his mother were kidnapped when he was a baby. Their owner, Mr. Carv- er, hired someone to find Mary and her baby. Mary died under suspicious circumstances and only baby George was returned to the Carver home. With the end of the Civil War and slav- ery in 1865, young Carver had a new home. Moses Carver and his wife, Susan, took him in and raised him. He was sickly as a young boy, and was not much help in the fields or

Botanist and chemist who found new uses for plants and inspired generations of black scientists

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