The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands (Penguin Classics)

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By the time Mary was 12 years old, she was helping her mother for real. And in 1853, when Mary was much older, she used her skills to treat a lot of people suffering from a nasty disease called cholera. Cathy Newman, "Will Gove's 'posh white blokes' history curriculum ignore women?" The Telegraph, 9 January 2013 After she died, people forgot Mary Seacole, but we remember her today as a woman of mixed race who lived an exciting and unusual life.

If singleness of heart, true charity, and Christian works; if trials and sufferings, dangers and perils, encountered boldly by a helpless woman on her errand of mercy in the camp and in the battle-field, can excite sympathy or move curiosity, Mary Seacole will have many friends and many readers. The difference between the passengers to and from California was very distinguishable. Those bound for the gold country were to a certain extent fresh from civilization, and had scarcely thrown off its control; whereas the homeward bound revelled in disgusting excess of licence. Although many of the women on their way to California showed clearly enough that the life of licence they sought would not be altogether unfamiliar to them, they still retained some appearance of decency in their attire and manner; but in many cases (as I have before said) the female companions of the successful gold-diggers appeared in no hurry to resume the dress or obligations of their sex. Many were clothed as the men were, in flannel shirt and boots; rode their mules in unfeminine fashion, but with much ease and courage; and in their conversation successfully rivalled the coarseness of their lords. I think, on the whole, that those French lady writers who desire to enjoy the privileges of man, with the irresponsibility of the other sex, would have been delighted with the disciples who were carrying their principles into practice in the streets of Cruces. Mary Jane Grant was born in Kingston, Jamaica, sometime in 1805, although she kept her actual birth date a secret. (She gave the census an incorrect age twice, reporting herself five years younger than she actually was. Her year of birth is taken from her death certificate.) On the sinking of a supply ship in November, however, Seacole found herself increasingly inclined “to join my old friends of the 97th, 48th and other regiments,” so she “threw over the gold speculation altogether and devoted all my energies to my new scheme.” She describes visiting various government offices to seek a position, but was turned down. Bostridge, Mark (14 February 2004), "Ministering on distant shores", The Guardian. Retrieved 4 April 2019What am I to do? Why did you ever bring me to this place? See what a state I am in – cold, hungry, and wretched. I want to wash, to change my clothes, to eat, to— " Her legacy is continued by the Mary Seacole Trust (MST) which, as well as maintaining the statue, aims to educate and inform the public about her life, work and achievements, ensuring that she is never again lost to history. Role model

Seacole died of a stroke on May 14, 1881. She was 76 years old. A rich woman at the time of her death, she left much of her money to her sister in Jamaica.

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Mary Seacole lived more than 150 years ago and had an adventurous life travelling across many lands to run businesses and help people in need. Excellent. Let’s go on to Mark Bostridge’s biography of Florence Nightingale, Florence Nightingale: The Woman and Her Legend. Tell us about this and how Mary enters it—I’m assuming Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale knew each other.

It was a long and difficult journey. When she got there, Mary set up what she called the British Hotel .

For a few days the terrible disease made such slow progress amongst us that we almost hoped it had passed on its way and spared us; but all at once it spread rapidly, and affrighted faces and cries of woe soon showed how fatally the destroyer was at work. And in so great request were my services, that for days and nights together I scarcely knew what it was to enjoy two successive hours' rest.

a b Elizabeth Anionwu (2006). "About Mary Seacole". Thames Valley University. Archived from the original on 27 April 2017 . Retrieved 30 March 2008. After returning to Jamaica, Seacole cared for her "old indulgent patroness" through an illness, [11] finally returning to the family home at Blundell Hall after the death of her patroness a few years later. Seacole then worked alongside her mother, occasionally being called to provide nursing assistance at the British Army hospital at Up-Park Camp. She also travelled the Caribbean, visiting the British colony of New Providence in the Bahamas, the Spanish colony of Cuba, and the new Republic of Haiti. Seacole records these travels, but omits mention of significant current events, such as the Christmas Rebellion in Jamaica of 1831, the abolition of slavery in 1833, [32] and the abolition of "apprenticeship" in 1838. [33] Mary decided something had to be done and so, with her loyal friend Thomas, she opened a “ British Hotel” near to the battlefields.Christer Petley, White Fury: A Jamaican Slaveholder and the Age of Revolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. 35–6, 81–2, 88–89 When Mary was young, she would watch her mother and copy her healing skills practising on her own toy dolls. During 1843 and 1844, Seacole suffered a series of personal disasters. She and her family lost much of the boarding house in a fire in Kingston on 29 August 1843. [26] Blundell Hall burned down, and was replaced by New Blundell Hall, which was described as "better than before". [26] Then her husband died in October 1844, followed by her mother. [26] After a period of grief, in which Seacole says she did not stir for days, [11] she composed herself, "turned a bold front to fortune", [26] and assumed the management of her mother's hotel. She put her rapid recovery down to her hot Creole blood, blunting the "sharp edge of [her] grief" sooner than Europeans who she thought "nurse their woe secretly in their hearts". [11] Janet Silvers, "Mary Seacole To Be removed From The National Curriculum", The Voice, 3 January 2013 Douglas Hall, In Miserable Slavery: Thomas Thistlewood in Jamaica, 1750–86, Macmillan, 1999, pp. 29–33, 275–6