Editing George Washington Carver (section)

==Early years==
[[File: Moses Carver Farm (7100120493).jpg|thumb|The farmhouse of [[Moses Carver]] (built in 1881), near the place where George Carver lived as a youth]]
Carver was born into [[slavery]], in Diamond Grove, (now [[Diamond, Missouri|Diamond]], [[Newton County, Missouri]]), near Crystal Palace, sometime in the early 1860s. The date of his birth is uncertain and was not known to Carver because it was before slavery was abolished in Missouri, which occurred in January 1865, during the [[American Civil War]]. His enslaver, [[Moses Carver]],  descended from a family of immigrants of German or English descent,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://npshistory.com/publications/gwca/hrs.pdf|title=HE SHALL DIRECT THY PATHS : THE EARLY LIFE OF GEORGE W. CARVER|last=Gart|first=Jason|date=2014|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=19 February 2023}} "Some writers have indicated that the Carvers emigrated from Germany, while others have argued that they were of English descent.", page 1.</ref> had purchased George's parents, Mary and Giles, from William P. McGinnis on October 9, 1855, for $700 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=700|start_year=1855}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}).<ref name="Macintosh on Carver" /><ref>McMurry (1982), ''George Washington Carver'', pp. 9–10.</ref><ref name="gwcnps"/>

Giles died before George was born and when he was a week old, he, his sister, and his mother were kidnapped by night raiders from [[Arkansas]]. George's brother, James, was rushed to safety from the kidnappers. The kidnappers sold the trio in [[Kentucky]]. Moses Carver hired John Bentley to find them, but he found only the infant George. Moses negotiated with the raiders to gain the boy's return and rewarded Bentley. After slavery was abolished, Moses Carver and his wife, Susan, raised George and his older brother, James, as their own children. They encouraged George to continue his intellectual pursuits, and "Aunt Susan" taught him the basics of reading and writing.<ref name="Pioneers">{{citation |editor1-first=Richard |editor1-last=Rennert |others=[[Coretta Scott King]] (introduction) |title=Profiles of Great Black Americans: Pioneers of Discovery |year=1994 |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |location=New York |isbn=978-0791020678 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/pioneersofdiscov00renn/page/26 26–32] |url=https://archive.org/details/pioneersofdiscov00renn/page/26}}</ref>

[[Black people]] were not allowed at the public school in Diamond Grove. George decided to go to a school for black children 10 miles (16&nbsp;km) south, in [[Neosho, Missouri|Neosho]]. When he reached the town, he found the school closed for the night. He slept in a nearby barn. By his own account, the next morning he met a kind woman, Mariah Watkins, from whom he wished to rent a room. When he identified himself as "Carver's George", as he had done his whole life, she replied that from now on his name was "George Carver". George liked Mariah Watkins and her words, "You must learn all you can, then go back out into the world and give your learning back to the people", made a great impression on him.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Abrams|first1=Dennis|title=George Washington Carver: Scientist and Educator|publisher=Chelsea House Publications|isbn=978-0791097175|pages=[https://archive.org/details/georgewashington00abra/page/16 16]|year=2008|url=https://archive.org/details/georgewashington00abra/page/16}}</ref>

At age 13, because he wanted to attend the academy there, he moved to the home of another foster family, in [[Fort Scott, Kansas]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-11 |title=Black History Month: When George Washington Carver came to Olathe |url=https://www.jocogov.org/newsroom/black-history-month-when-george-washington-carver-came-olathe |access-date=2024-05-18 |website=Johnson County Kansas |language=en}}</ref> After witnessing the killing of a black man by a group of white people, Carver left the city. He attended a series of schools before earning his diploma at Minneapolis High School in [[Minneapolis, Kansas]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lucy Seymour |url=https://www.nps.gov/gwca/learn/education/upload/Grade-4-Bio-Cards_Lucy-Seymour.pdf |access-date=2024-05-18 |website=[[National Park Service]]}}</ref>

During his time spent in Minneapolis, there was another George Carver in town, which caused confusion over receiving mail. Carver chose a middle initial at random and began requesting letters to him be addressed to George W. Carver. Someone once asked if the "W" stood for Washington, and Carver grinned and said, "Why not?" However, he never used Washington as his middle name, and signed his name as either George W. Carver or simply George Carver.<ref>Elliot, Lawrence, ''Beyond Fame or Fortune'' (Book Section), ''Reader's Digest'', May 1965, p. 272.</ref>