Gigliotti - Who Was George Washington Carver?

For Dante and Sophia, that you might always keep your passion for learningJG

GROSSET & DUNLAP

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Text copyright 2015 by Jim Gigliotti. Illustrations copyright 2015 by Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-0-399-53973-2

Version_1

Who Was George Washington Carver?

Mrs. Baynham looked out at her garden, but she didnt like what she saw. Mrs. Baynham lived in the biggest house in Diamond Grove, Missouri, in the mid-1870s. Inside the house, everything was in order: pretty paintings and nice furniture. But outside, in the garden, her roses werent blooming.

Why not? she wondered. Her friend Susan Carvers roses were blooming. Her roses were big and beautifuland bright red! Mrs. Carver lived on a nearby farm. Mrs. Baynham went over and asked what her secret was to growing such perfect flowers.

Its our George, Mrs. Carver said. Hes the one who knows about roses.

George was the ten-year-old boy who lived with Mrs. Carver. She was his foster mother. Mrs. Carver had been taking care of George since he was a baby. And George had been taking care of Mrs. Carvers plants and flowers.

Actually, George helped out around the farm in many ways. He loved Mrs. Carver as if she were his own mother. He would have done just about anything she asked. But he was especially happy when she asked him to help with her garden.

So George went over to Mrs. Baynhams house to take a look at her roses. He knew right away what was wrong. Her roses needed to be moved to a different part of the garden, where they could get more sun. He moved the plants, and soon they were in full bloom!

Word spread quickly. And young George started helping many of Mrs. Carvers friends with their plants and flowers. One week, a neighbor needed help with her lilies. Another week, a friend asked for help with her begonias. George always seemed to know how to fix whatever problem there was. Soon, he became known as the Plant Doctor.

George never lost that helpful spirit, nor his love for plants and the best way to grow them. He was George Washington Carver, and he used his passion for nature to become one of the most famous, and helpful, scientists in the world.

Chapter 1
Orphaned

George Washington Carver was born into slavery in Diamond Grove, Missouri, near the end of the American Civil War, which was fought from 1861 to 1865. George was black; his owners, Moses and Susan Carver, were white.

Moses and Susan were German immigrants. They didnt like slavery, but they had a 240-acre farm that needed much work, and Missouri had entered the Union in 1820 as a slave state. In 1855, the Carvers purchased a thirteen-year-old slave girl named Mary. They treated Mary well and were happy for her when she gave birth to a son named Jim in 1859. Several years later, George was born.

No one knows exactly when George was born, because most records among slave owners were poorly kept. Most likely George was born in 1864. His father, Giles, was a slave who was owned by a neighbor of the Carvers. He was killed in a farming accident not long after Georges birth. No one knows exactly how many brothers or sisters George had.

George lived with Mary and Jim in a small cabin on the Carver farm. The cabin was the original house on the farm. Moses and Susan had since built a larger house, and they lived in that one. One night when George was still an infant, he was asleep in the cabin. Suddenly, there was the sound of men on horseback. Moses knew what that meant. Twice before, his farm had been attacked by raiders called bushwhackerswho were fighting on the Confederate (Southern) side in the Civil War.

Missouris role in the Civil War was complicated. Even though Missouri was a slave state, many of the people who lived there were against slavery. So some men on the Union (Northern) side fought for Missouri to remain as one of the United States and to free the slaves. But some of Missouris men fought to create a separate nation that would keep slavery legal. They were on the Confederate side.

Moses was caught in the middle. He had slaves, but since he also wanted slavery to be illegal, he upset people on both sides.

The bushwhackers wanted to take the slaves and sell them in a nearby state such as Arkansas. Moses raced to the cabin and called out for Mary. Moses grabbed Jim, and Mary grabbed George. Moses and Jim escaped, but it was too late for Mary and George. The men grabbed her and her baby, and they galloped away into the night.

The next day, Moses hurried to Neosho, Missouri, which was about eight miles away. There was a man in Neosho who was a scout for the Union side. The man might know where to look for Mary and George.

Several days later, the scout came back. He was clutching George, who was very sick with whooping cough, but alive. There was no sign of Mary. The raiders had abandoned George. Mary was never heard from again.