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George Washington Carver

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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, Diamond Grove, Civil War, Plant Doctor, When George, Simpson College, Iowa Agricultural College, Washington Carver, African American, Booker T.

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George Washington Carver By Mary L. Bushong

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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 farm near Diamond Grove, Missouri. When he was still just a baby, slave raiders came and kidnapped him and his mother. After the Civil War, his former master was able to ransom him back, but his mother could not be found. Mr. Moses 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. 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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