Seacole, Mary

1805
May 14, 1881

Mary Grant Seacole's autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, was published in England in 1857. Although the book provides some details of her personal life, the text is primarily concerned with detailing Seacole's "roving inclination." Seacole was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to a free black Creole woman and a white Scotsman. As a young woman, she trained under her mother, an eminent "doctress," and she went on to minister to many members of Britain's military force stationed in Kingston, as well as to local people. In addition to her medical skills, which would continue to expand, she was also an entrepreneur, running a series of business ventures in Jamaica, Panama, England, and the Crimea. Although widowed after a brief marriage, she chose to pursue her goal "to be useful" rather than retire from life and society.

In 1850, Seacole's "roving inclination" persuaded her to follow her brother to Panama, where she planned to help him run his hotel and store. Her autobiography describes her unwavering refusal to let the difficulty of travel deter or dissuade her resolve. In 1854, this perseverance sustained her when she volunteered her services to the War Department in England at the outbreak of the Crime-an War. She was rebuffed at every turn, due to what she called the "infection of American racism" upon officials at War Department, British aid agencies, and Florence Nightingale's organization serving in the Crimea. Undeterred, Seacole decided to go to the Crimea anyway, with the intent of opening up a small hotel and hospital. When Seacole returned to England she was destitute. After the failure of a few business ventures, she eventually wrote her memoirs.

Seacole's autobiography is significant for a number of reasons. Her zest for life and adventure are evident through the narrative. Although successful in the womanly arts of nurturance, Seacole consistently portrays herself as a strong and capable woman, willing and able to assert her independence with fortitude and humor. The narrative is strewn with her shrewd observations of various peoples, classes, and nationalities, especially as they pertain to race. Although as a brown, or "yaller," woman, Seacole expresses the sharpest scorn for Americans and others who dislike blacks for no reason other than skin color, she also admonishes lazy blacks and Indians. She also asserts that, due to the enterprising blood of her Scotsman father, she is unlike the usual lazy Creoles. One of the most striking features of the narrative, in addition to the author's strong voice, is Seacole's decision to tell her story in the way she wanted. Unlike other travel narratives, and narratives of the Crimean War, Seacole does not adhere to a strict chronological or diary-style arrangement. Instead, Seacole's narrative is a glorious mélange of letters, narrative description, adventure tale, medical treatise, and social commentary.

See also Women Writers of the Caribbean

Bibliography

Baggett, Paul. "Caught between Homes: Mary Seacole and the Question of Cultural Identity." MaComère 3 (2000): 45–56.

Hawthorne, Evelyn J. "Self-Writing, Literary Traditions, and Post-Emancipation Identity: The Case of Mary Seacole." Biography 23, no. 2 (2000): 309–331.

Paravisini-Gebert, Lizabeth. "Mrs. Seacole's Wonderful Adventures in Many Lands and the Consciousness of Transit." In Black Victorians/Black Victoriana, edited by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2003.

Seacole, Mary. The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, edited by Ziggi Alexander and Audrey Dewjee. Bristol, UK: Falling Wall Press, 1984.

nicole n. aljoe (2005)