Carver was born in Missouri in 1864 and named simply ‘George’ by the Carver family, who owned his parents. George’s father died before George was born and, when a week old, the boy and his mother were kidnapped. The Carvers were able to ransom George, but no trace of his mother was ever found. In a rare reflection on his past the adult Carver was later to say he started life as ‘the orphaned child of a despised race’.