2020-04-29

A story from The Butterfly Effect.

Moses and his wife Susan lived in a slave state, but they didn't believe in slavery. This was a problem for psychopaths like Quantrill's Raiders who terrorized the area by destroying property, burning and killing.

And sure enough, one cold January night, Quantrill's Raiders rode through Moses and Susan's farm. The outlaws burned the barn, shot several people, and dragged off a woman named Mary Washington who refused to let go of her infant son, George.

Mary Washington was Susan's best friend and with his wife distraught, Moses quickly sent word out through neighbors and towns and two days later managed to secure a meeting with the bandits.

On a black horse, Moses rode several hours north to a crossroads in Kansas. There, at the appointed time, in the middle of the night, he met four of Quantrill's Raiders. They were on horseback, carrying torches, and flour sacks tied over their heads with holes cut out for their eyes. There, Moses traded the only horse he had left on his farm for what they threw him in a dirty burlap bag.

As they thundered off on their horses, Moses fell to his knees and there, alone on that dark winter night, the farmer pulled from the bag a cold...naked...almost dead...baby boy.

Quickly, he jerked open his coat and his shirts and placed the child next to his skin. Covering him then with his own clothes and relying on the warmth from his own body, the man turned...and walked that baby out.

Moses walked through the night and into the next morning to get the child to safety. He sang to the child and told him he would care for him. He promised the boy he would educate him to honor his mother, whom they knew was already dead.

That was the night that the farmer gave that baby his name. And that is how Moses and Susan Carver came to raise that little baby, George Washington.

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