Mary Seacole

Mary Seacole 1805-1881

Mary Seacole ~ click here for the complete presentation given in class.

Mary Seacole, nee Mary Jane Grant, was born in Kingston Jamaica during 1805. Her father was a Scottish soldier and her mother was a free black Jamaican woman who was skilled in medicine. Mary began to gain medicinal knowledge from helping her mother care for invalids in her boarding house. In 1836, she married Edwin Horatio Seacole. They made trips to the Bahamas, Haiti, and Cuba where Mary increased her knowledge of medicine. After Edwin died, she traveled to Panama and provided care during the cholera epidemic; and then back to Jamaica where she tended to British soldiers that had contracted yellow fever.

The Crimean War

In 1853, news broke about the Crimean War. Mary traveled to London in hopes of offering her services to help the wounded. She had anticipated joining Florence Nightingale’s nursing team. But despite all of her knowledge, she was rejected, most likely due to her ethnicity. This derailment did not stop her though, and she traveled to Crimea on her own. With the help of Thomas Day (her late husband’s relative), Mary Seacole founded the British Hotel, where they sold food, supplies, and medicines to the troops. She also used her knowledge to help care for the wounded and sick in military hospitals, especially those with cholera and dysentery. This knowledge helped her to obtain special access, which enabled her to tend to the wounded and dying on both sides of the war.

After the War

In 1856, after the end of the war, Mary returned to London. Due to the expenses and debt that she incurred from the soldiers during the operation of the British Hotel, Mary was now bankrupt. The newspapers caught wind of this, and with the support of Queen Victoria and a very grateful British Army, a campaign, The Seacole Fund, was started to raise money for Mary. In 1857, Mary’s autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, became a bestseller. These funds eventually allowed her to live comfortably once again. For years, Mary Seacole was a forgotten figure. Why was Florence Nightingale remembered and Mary Seacole forgotten? Both were nurses during the Crimean War and they both saved many lives? Many say that it is because Mary was black. When she was brought back into the limelight during the 1970’s, she became an iconic symbol for overcoming racial discrimination, black nurses, civil right’s activists, and the women’s liberal movement. Posthumously, Mary Seacole has been awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit and a plaque has been erected at her former residence.