George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver was born into slavery January of 1860 on the Moses Carver plantation in Diamond Grove, Missouri. He spent the first year of his life, the brutal days of border war, between Missouri and neighboring Kansas. George was a very sickly child with a whooping cough, which later lead to his speech impediment, and he was tiny and puny. George's father, James Carver, died in a wood hauling accident when he was bringing wood to his master's house one day. George was sick a great deal during his early years. In 1861, when George was one year old, raiders kidnapped him and his mother with horses from their home in Missouri. Moses Carver, Mary's master, heard that a bushwhacker named Bentley knew Mary's whereabouts along with little George's. Moses offered him 40 acres of his best timberland and Pacer, one of his best horses. Bentley accepted the offer and started in pursuit all the way into Arkansas. Bentley returned a few days later only with young George in a bundle and no sign of Mary. A few years later, in spring, little George was in the woods scraping at the earth. When someone was sick George gathered roots, herbs, and bark, which he boiled to make medicines. Carver grew to be a student of life and a scholar, despite the illness and frailty of his early childhood. Because he was not strong enough to work in the fields, he helped with household chores and gardening. Probably because of these duties and because of the hours he would spend exploring the woods around his home, he developed a keen interest in plants at an early age. Neighbors called George the Plant Doctor because he made house to house calls in Diamond Grove to prescribe for ailing plants. George had his own mini garden where he nursed sick plants b...

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...ver helped to make and discovered many different uses for items like the peanut and sweet potatoes. This book was very vivid in its description of all the hardships, hard work, and effort George Washington Carver put into his research. I learned that George was very dedicated to his research and he proved this in many ways. George donated his entire estate to enable his research to continue which coerces me to strive to do better for myself. Overall, this book gave me a real role model that I could strive to be like. I realized from reading the book that George never gave up no matter how many people gave him a fight. I also learned that just because you are slow or have a disability does not mean that you are not smart. Now I know to believe in myself and not to let others put me down or not to put down myself and for his contributions I am thankful. Word Count: 1247