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Black History and Blacks in U.S. History
 George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.91

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    happening, ransom, teaching, agriculture, tombstone, rotation, inventor, better, tobacco, scientist, fortune, education, attend, master, fame, neither
     content words:    George Washington Carver, Moses Carver, Diamond Grove, Civil War, Plant Doctor, Simpson College, Iowa Agricultural College, Washington Carver, African American, Booker T.

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George Washington Carver
By Mary L. Bushong 		  
1     Have you ever wished that you could invent things? What would you invent? What would you do with it? George Washington Carver was a great scientist and inventor. What he did might surprise you.
 
2     He was born in January about 1864 on the Moses Carver farm near Diamond Grove, Missouri. When he was still just a baby, slave raiders came and kidnapped him, his brother, and his mother. After the Civil War, his former master was able to ransom him back, but his mother could not be found. Mr. Carver raised George and his brother as part of his own family. As he grew up on the farm, George learned to love plants and nature. He loved to take care of plants so much that people started calling him "the Plant Doctor."
 
3     When George was 12 years old, he was ready to start his formal education, but there were no schools for black children where he lived. He left home and found a town in southern Missouri where there was a school for blacks. He went to school and worked as a farm hand to earn his keep. After graduating he became the first black student to attend Simpson College in Iowa. Then he transferred to Iowa Agricultural College and worked as the school janitor to help pay for classes.

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