Mary Seacole

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MS 's single publication, the travel narrative Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, 1857, presents a complex self-portrait of a mixed-race itinerant female colonial subject, as well as a rare female account of the Crimean War.

Milestones

1805

MS was born Mary Grant, in Kingston, Jamaica, one of two children.
Fryer, Peter. Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain. Pluto Press.
246

By 25 July 1857

MS published her autobiographical travel narrative, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, including an account of her efforts in the Crimean War.
Andrews, William L., and Mary Seacole. “Introduction”. Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, Oxford University Press, p. xxvii - xxxiv.
xxxii
Seacole, Mary, and William L. Andrews. Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands. Oxford University Press.
195-6
Uglow, Jennifer S., and Frances Hinton, editors. Continuum Dictionary of Women’s Biography. Continuum.
490
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.

14 May 1881

MS died in prosperous circumstances. She had suffered an apoplexy two weeks before this, and spent three days in a coma.
Her grave lies as she requested in the Roman Catholic section of Kensal Green Cemetery in London. Her estate amounted to more than £2,500.
Fryer, Peter. Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain. Pluto Press.
252
Andrews, William L., and Mary Seacole. “Introduction”. Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, Oxford University Press, p. xxvii - xxxiv.
xxxiii
Fryer, Peter. Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain. Pluto Press.
252
Anionwu, Elizabeth. Mary Seacole, 1805-1881. http://www.wolfson.tvu.ac.uk/maryseacole/pages/index.html.

Biography

MS was given the affectionate title of Mother Seacole by the soldiers in the Crimea. Her nickname in Panama, Aunty Seacole, she seems to have regarded less fondly, perhaps because it bore specifically racist connotations from the US context, along the lines of Aunt Jemima.
Seacole, Mary, and William L. Andrews. Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands. Oxford University Press.
passim

Birth and Heritage