George Washington Carver’s (1865–1943) early life is shrouded in myth and legend. He was probably born in the spring of 1865 in a one-room cabin on a farm in Newton County, Missouri. His mother had been a slave; his father was unknown to him. The owners of the farm were Moses and Susan Carver, German immigrants. Along with his mother, George was abducted as an infant by night riders who carried him off to Arkansas. Moses Carver found George and traded a horse valued at three hundred dollars for him—or so legend relates.
