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 George Washington Carver was born a slave, struck by life-threatening illness, kidnapped, orphaned, and emancipated—all within the first year of his life.
These extraordinary events happened to an extraordinary child, whose curiosity, resourcefulness, and perseverance would not let anything derail his search for knowledge. His journey from slave to scholar takes us across a landscape ravaged by civil war, among a people divided by hatred, at a crossroads in our nation’s history.
The Carver Family
In 1838, Moses and Susan Carver established a homestead near the town of Diamond, Missouri, about 60 miles west of Springfield. The Carver’s 240-acre farm was located in a frontier region on the edge of the battle between North and South.
Missourians’ divided loyalties led to guerilla warfare. Unionist settlers, like the Carvers, were often the target of bloody raids by Confederate “bushwhackers.”
 Slavery and the Carvers
Moses Carver opposed slavery, but accepted Mary—George’s mother—as a slave in payment for a debt of $700. George’s father, believed to be a slave from a nearby farm, died in 1864 around the time George was born.
Carver was a baby when he and his mother Mary were kidnapped by slave raiders. Moses sent a scout to find and bring them back. Only baby George was found—so sick with whooping cough that the raiders had left him for dead.
Continue to Carver’s Childhood. >>
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