Mary Seacole Totally Explained

Everything about Mary Seacole totally explained

Mary Jane Seacole (1805 – 14 May 1881), sometimes known as Mother Seacole or Mary Grant, was a Jamaican-born multiracial British nurse best known for her involvement in the Crimean War. Her autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (1857), is a vivid account of her experiences, and is one of the earliest autobiographies of a mixed-race woman.

Early life, 1805–26

Seacole was born Mary Grant in Kingston, Jamaica, the daughter of a white Scottish officer in the British Army and a free Jamaican Creole woman. Seacole's mother was a "doctress", a healer who used traditional Caribbean and African herbal remedies. She ran Blundell Hall, a boarding house at 7 East Street in Kingston and one of the best hotels in Kingston. Many of the residents were disabled European soldiers and sailors, often suffering from the endemic yellow fever. Here Seacole acquired her nursing skills. In her autobiography she records her early experiments in medicine, imitating her mother by ministering to a doll, then progressing to pets before helping her mother to treat humans.
   Seacole was proud of her Scottish ancestry and called herself a Creole, a term which was commonly used in a racially neutral sense or to refer to the children of white settlers. Legally, she was classified as a mulatto, a multiracial person with limited political rights. Robinson speculates that she may technically have been a quadroon. Seacole emphasises her personal vigour in her autobiography, distancing herself from the contemporary stereotype of the "lazy Creole", yet she was "proud of [her] relationship" with black American slaves demonstrated by the "few shades deeper brown upon [her] skin".
   The West Indies was an outpost of the British Empire in the late 18th century and in 1789, one fifth of Britain's foreign trade was with the British West Indies, increasing to a third in the 1790s. Britain's economic interests were protected by a massive military presence, with 69 line infantry regiments serving there from 1793 to 1801, and another 24 from 1803 to 1815.
   Seacole spent some years in the household of an elderly woman, whom she called her "kind patroness", As the educated daughter of a Scottish officer and a free black woman with a respectable business, Seacole would have held a high position in Jamaican society.
   In about 1821 Seacole visited London, staying for a year, and visited relatives, the merchant Henriques family. Although London had a significant population of black people, she records that a companion, a West Indian with skin darker than her own "dusky" shades, was taunted by children. Seacole herself was "only a little brown", She returned to London approximately a year later, bringing a "large stock of West Indian pickles and preserves for sale". Seacole returned to Jamaica in 1825.

In the Caribbean, 1826–51

After returning to Jamaica, Seacole nursed her "old indulgent patroness" through an illness, or the full abolition of slavery in 1838.
Seacole married Edwin Horatio Hamilton Seacole in Kingston on 10 November 1836. Her marriage from betrothal to widowhood is described in just nine lines at the conclusion of the first chapter of her autobiography. Seacole's will indicates that Horatio Seacole was Nelson's godson; she left a diamond ring to her friend, Lord Rokeby, "given to my late husband by his Godfather Viscount Nelson", although there was no mention of this godson was made in Nelson's will or its codicils. Edwin was a merchant and seems to have had a poor constitution. The newly married couple moved to Black River and opened a provisions store, which failed to prosper. They returned to Blundell Hall in the early 1840s.
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. Seacole attributed the outbreak to infection brought on a steamer from New Orleans, Louisiana, This first-hand experience benefited her in the following five years.

In Central America, 1851–54

In 1850, Seacole's half-brother Edward moved to Cruces, Panama, then part of New Granada. There, approximately 45 miles (72 km) up the Chagres River from the coast, he followed the family trade by establishing the Independent Hotel to accommodate the many travellers between the east coast and west coasts of the United States. The number of travellers had increased due to the 1849 California Gold Rush. Cruces was the limit of navigability of the Chagres River during the rainy season, from June to December. Travellers would ride on donkeys approximately 20 miles (32 km) along the Las Cruces trail from Panama City on the Pacific Ocean coast to Cruces, and then 45 miles (72 km) downriver to the Atlantic Ocean at Chagres (or vice versa). In the dry season, the river subsided, and travellers would switch from land to the river a few miles further downstream, at Gorgona. However many, both rich and poor, succumbed. She eschewed opium, preferring mustard rubs and poultices, laxative calomel (mercuric chloride), sugars of lead (lead(II) acetate), and rehydration with water boiled with cinnamon. While her preparations had moderate success, she faced little competition—the only other treatments coming from a "timid little dentist",
   Despite the problems of disease and climate Panama remained the favoured route between the coasts of the United States. Seeing a business opportunity, Seacole opened the British Hotel, although this was more of a restaurant than an hotel, she seems to have had a problem with her clientèle as it's recorded she struggled to keep the rowdy travellers under control.
   As the wet season ended in early 1852, Seacole joined other traders in Cruces in packing up to move to Gorgona. She records an American giving a speech at a leaving dinner in which he wished "God bless the best yaller woman he ever made" and asked the listeners to join with him in rejoicing that "she's so many shades removed from being entirely black”. He went on to say that "if we could bleach her by any means we would [...] and thus make her acceptable in any company as she deserves to be". Seacole was incensed: in her reply, she said that she'd have been just as happy to have a complexion "as dark as any nigger's", and wished for "the general reformation of American manners". Seacole also comments on the positions of responsibility taken on by escaped American slaves in Panama, in the priesthood, the army and public offices, She went on to organise a nursing service for the hospital at Up-Park Camp, about a mile (1.6 km) from Kingston, composed of fellow Afro-Caribbean "doctresses" who seemed to be largely immune to the disease.
   Seacole returned to Panama in early 1854 to finalise her business affairs, and three months later moved to the New Granada Mining Gold Company establishment at Fort Bowen Mine some 70 miles (112 km) away near Escribanos to provide medical support. The superintendent, Thomas Day, was a relative of her late husband. Seacole had read newspaper reports of the outbreak of war against Russia before she left Jamaica, and news of the escalating Crimean War reached Seacole in Panama where she determined to travel to England to volunteer as a nurse, hundreds more would die waiting to be shipped out, or on the voyage—their prospects were little better when they arrived at the poorly staffed, unsanitary and overcrowded hospitals which were the only medical provision for those wounded. In Britain, a trenchant letter in The Times on 14 October triggered Sidney Herbert, Secretary of State for War, to approach Florence Nightingale to form a detachment of nurses to be sent to the hospital to save lives. Interviews were quickly held, suitable candidates selected, and Nightingale left for Turkey on 21 October.
   Seacole travelled from Navy Bay, in Panama, to England, bringing letters of recommendation from doctors in Jamaica and Panama. On arrival she approached the War Office, asking to be sent to Crimea as an army nurse, but failed to secure an interview. She was told to see the Quartermaster general, and then the Medical Department, but was rebuffed at each turn. Seacole was then becoming concerned about the racial prejudices that she'd experienced at the hands of Americans which could be taking root in Britain. However, many other candidates too found they were unable to meet Nightingale's exacting standards, considered too drunk, too old, or lacking in the social graces. Undaunted, Seacole applied to the Crimean Fund, a fund raised by public subscription to support the wounded in Crimea, for sponsorship to travel to Crimea, but again she was met with refusal.
   Seacole finally resolved to travel to Crimea using her own resources, in order to open the British Hotel. Business cards were printed and sent on to announce her imminent arrival and intention to open "a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers". The ship called at Malta where Seacole encountered a doctor who had recently left Scutari. He wrote her a letter of introduction to Nightingale. On arriving in the Pera, the port of Constantinople, she took a caicque across the Bosporus to visit Nightingales's hospital in Scutari where she encountered amongst the patients many familiar faces from the West Indies. At her meeting with Nightingale once again her offer of help was refused. After transferring most of her stores to the transport ship Albatross, with the remainder following on the Nonpareil, she set out on the four-day voyage to the British bridgehead into Crimea at Balaclava.
   Returning to Balaclava, lacking proper building materials, Seacole gathered abandoned metal and wood in her spare moments, with a view to using the debris to build her hotel. She found a site for the hotel at a place she christened Spring Hill, near Kadikoi, some 3½ miles (5.6 km) along the main British supply road from Balaclava to the British camp near Sevastopol, and within a mile of the British headquarters.
   The hotel was built from the salvaged driftwood, packing cases, and iron sheets, and salvaged architectural items—glass-doors and window-frames—from the village of Kamara, using hired local labour . and describes Seacole as "an old dame of a jovial appearance, but a few shades darker than the white lily". The hotel was completed in July at a total cost of £800. It included a building made of iron, containing a main room with counters and shelves and storage above, an attached kitchen, two wooden sleeping huts, outhouses, and an enclosed stable yard. The building was stocked with provisions shipped from London and Constantinople, and local purchases from the British camp near Kadikoi and the French camp at nearby Kamiesch. Seacole sold anything "from a needle to an anchor" to army officers and visiting sightseers.
   Florence Nightingale frowned upon the actions of Seacole, although she did little to express her disapproval overtly. The British Hotel charged for its services, supplied alcohol, and was open to visiting tourists as well as soldiers, leading Nightingale to later accuse Seacole of running an establishment that was little better than a brothel. Some years later corresponding to her brother-in-law Sir Harry Verney in 1870 she wrote that Seacole "kept - I won't call it a 'bad house' - but something not very unlike it - in the Crimean War [...] She was very kind to the men &, what is more, to the Officers - & did some good - & made many drunk." Worse, a second letter went further, stating that Seacole was a "woman of bad character" who kept "a bad house" (meaning a brothel). However, a letter from John Hall, Inspector General of Hospitals, dated 30 June 1856, records his gratitude for Seacole's assistance at the hospital.
   Seacole often went out to the troops as a sutler, selling her provisions near the British camp at Kadikoi, and attending to casualties brought out from the trenches around Sevastopol or from the Tchernaya valley. In a dispatch written on 14 September 1855, William Howard Russell, special correspondent of The Times wrote that she was a "warm and successful physician, who doctors and cures all manner of men with extraordinary success. She is always in attendance near the battle-field to aid the wounded and has earned many a poor fellow's blessing." Russell also wrote that she "redeemed the name of sutler", and another that she was "both a Miss Nightingale and a [chef]". Seacole made a point of wearing brightly coloured, and highly conspicuous, clothing—often bright blue, or yellow, with ribbons in contrasting colours. While Lady Alicia Blackwood later recalled that Seacole had "... personally spared no pains and no exertion to visit the field of woe, and minister with her own hands such things as could comfort or alleviate the suffering of those around her; freely giving to such as couldn't pay ...".
   In late August, Seacole was on the route to Cathcart's Hill for the final assault on Sevastopol on 7 September 1855. French troops led the storming, but the British were beaten back. By dawn on Sunday 9 September, the city was burning out of control, and it was clear that it had fallen: the Russians retreated to fortifications to the north of the harbour. Later in the day Seacole fulfilled a bet, and became the first woman to enter Sevastopol after it fell. Having obtained a pass she toured the broken town bearing refreshments and visiting the crowded hospital by the docks, containing thousands of dead and dying Russians. Her foreign appearance led to her being stopped by French looters, but she was rescued by a passing officer. She liberated some items from the city, including a church bell, an altar candle, and a 3-metre (10 ft) long painting of the Madonna.
   After the fall of Sevastopol, hostilities continued in a desultory fashion. The business of Seacole and Day prospered in the interim period, with the soldiers taking the opportunity to enjoy themselves in the quieter days. There were theatrical performances and horse racing events for which Seacole provided catering.
   Seacole was joined by a young relative, a 14-year-old girl, Sarah, also known as Sally. Soyer described her as "the Egyptian beauty, Mrs Seacole's daughter Sarah", with blue eyes and dark hair. Nightingale alleged that Sarah was the illegitimate offspring of Seacole and Colonel Henry Bunbury. However, there's no evidence that Bunbury met Seacole, or even visited Jamaica, at a time when she'd have been nursing her ailing husband. Ramdin speculates that Thomas Day could have been Sarah's father, pointing to the unlikely coincidences of their meeting in Panama and then in England, and their unusual business partnership in Crimea.
   Peace talks began in Paris in early 1856, and friendly relations opened between the Allies and the Russians, with a lively trade across the River Tchernaya. The Treaty of Paris was signed on 30 March 1856, after which the soldiers left Crimea. Seacole was in a difficult financial position, her Hotel was full of unsaleable provisions, new goods arriving daily, and creditors demanding payment. Seacole was one of the last to leave Crimea, returning to England "poorer than [she] left it". Robinson speculates that Seacole's business problems may have been caused in part by her partner, Day, who dabbled in horse trading and may have set up as an unofficial bank, cashing debts.
   At about this time, Seacole began to wear military medals. These are mentioned in an account of her appearance in the bankruptcy court in November 1856. A bust by George Kelly, based on an original by Count Gleichen from around 1871, depicts her wearing four medals, three of which have been identified as the British Crimea Medal, the French Légion d'honneur and the Turkish Order of the Medjidie medal. Robinson says that one is "apparently" a Sardinian award (Sardinia having joined Britain and France in supporting Turkey against Russia in the war). Day left for the Antipodes to seek new opportunities, but Seacole's funds remained low. She moved from Tavistock Street to cheaper lodgings in 14 Soho Square in early 1857, triggering a plea for subscriptions from Punch on 2 May.
   Further fund-raising kept Seacole in the public eye. In May 1857 she wanted to travel to India, to minister to the wounded of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, but she was dissuaded by both the new Secretary of War, Lord Panmure, and her financial troubles. Fund-raising activities included the "Seacole Fund Grand Military Festival" which was held at the Royal Surrey Gardens, from Monday 27 July to Thursday 30 July 1857. This successful event was supported by many military men, including Major General Lord Rokeby (who had commanded the 1st Division in Crimea) and Lord George Paget: over 1,000 artists performed, including 11 military bands and an orchestra conducted by Louis Antoine Jullien, which was attended by a crowd of circa 40,000. The one shilling entrance charge was quintupled for the first night, and halved for the Tuesday performance. However, production costs had been high and the Royal Surrey Gardens Company was itself having financial problems, and became insolvent immediately after the festival, as a result Seacole only received £57, one quarter of the profits from the event. When eventually the financial affairs of the ruined Company were resolved, in March 1858, the Indian Mutiny was over.
   A 200-page autobiographical account of her travels was published in July 1857 by James Blackwood as Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, the first autobiography written by a black woman in Britain. Priced at one shilling and six pence a copy, the cover bears a striking portrait of Seacole in red, yellow and black ink. Robinson speculates that she dictated the work to an editor, identified in the book only as W.J.S., who improved her grammar and orthography. In the work Seacole deals with the first 39 years of her life in one short chapter. She then expands six chapters on her few years in Panama, before using the following 12 chapters to detail her exploits in Crimea. She avoids mention of the names of her parents and precise date of birth. A short final "Conclusion" deals with her return to England, and lists supporters of her fund-raising effort, including Rokeby, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, the Duke of Wellington, the Duke of Newcastle, William Russell, and other prominent men in the military. The book was dedicated to Major-General Lord Rokeby, commander of the First Division; and William Howard Russell wrote as a preface, "I have witnessed her devotion and her courage ... and I trust that England will never forget one who has nursed her sick, who sought out her wounded to aid and succour them and who performed the last offices for some of her illustrious dead."

Later life, 1860–81

Seacole had joined the Roman Catholic church circa 1860, and returned to a Jamaica changed in her absence as Jamaica faced economic downturn. She became a prominent figure in the country. However, by 1867 she was again running short of money, and the Seacole fund was resurrected in London, with illustrious new patrons, including the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Cambridge, and many other senior military officers. The fund burgeoned, and Seacole was able to buy land on Duke Street in Kingston, near New Blundell Hall, where she built a bungalow as her new home plus a larger property to rent out.
   By 1870, Seacole was back in London, and Robinson speculates that she was drawn back by the prospect of rendering medical assistance in the Franco-Prussian War. It seems likely that she approached Sir Harry Verney (the husband of Florence Nightingale's sister Persephone) Member of Parliament for Buckingham who was closely involved in the British National Society for the Relief of the Sick and Wounded. It was at this time Nightingale wrote her letter to Verney insinuating that Seacole had kept a "bad house" in Crimea, and was responsible for "much drunkenness and improper conduct".
   In London, Seacole joined the periphery of the royal circle. Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, (a nephew of Queen Victoria, as young Lieutenant he'd been one of her customers in Crimea)
   Seacole died in 1881 at her home in Paddington, London, the cause of death was noted as "apoplexy". She left estate valued at over £2,500. After some specific legacies, many of exactly 19 guineas, the main beneficiary of her will was her sister, Louisa. Lord Rokeby, Colonel Hussey Fane Keane, and Count Gleichen (three trustees of her Fund) were each left £50; Count Gleichen also received a diamond ring, said to have been given to Seacole’s late husband by Lord Nelson. A short obituary was published in The Times on 21 May 1881. She was buried in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Harrow Road, Kensal Green, London.

Recognition

Whilst well-known at the end of her life, Seacole rapidly faded from public memory. Her work in Crimea was overshadowed by Florence Nightingale's for many years. However, in recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in her and efforts to properly acknowledge her achievements. Seacole has become a symbol of racial attitudes and social injustices in Britain during that period. She was quoted as an example of "hidden" black history in Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, like Olaudah Equiano: "See, here's Mary Seacole, who did as much in the Crimea as another magic-lamping lady, but, being dark, could scarce be seen for the flame of Florence's candle."
She has been better remembered in the Caribbean, where she was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991. The headquarters of the Jamaican General Trained Nurses' Association was christened "Mary Seacole House" in 1954, followed quickly by the naming of a hall of residence of the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica. A ward at Kingston Public Hospital was also named in her memory. Her grave was rediscovered in 1973; a service of reconsecration was held on 20 November 1973, and her impressive gravestone was also restored by the British Commonwealth Nurses' War Memorial Fund and the Lignum Vitae Club. The centenary of her death was celebrated with a memorial service on 14 May 1981. but it was removed in 1998 before the site was redeveloped. She was voted into first place in an online poll of 100 Great Black Britons in 2004.
   An annual prize to recognise and develop leadership in nurses, midwives and health visitors in the National Health Service was named Seacole, to "acknowledge her achievements". and the Home Office commemorated her in early 2005 by naming part of its new headquarters at 2 Marsham Street in her honour New buildings at the University of Salford and Birmingham City University have also been named in her honour. There is a Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice at Thames Valley University and a Mary Seacole Research Centre at De Montfort University in Leicester, plus a problem-based learning room at St George's, University of London is named after her. The Mary Seacole Research Centre has recently created the Specialist Library for Ethnicity and Health, a specialist electronic (web-based) library collecting information about the health needs of minority ethnic groups and resources relevant to multi-cultural health care, and which also carries articles exploring the significance of race and ethnic group for health care. There is also a Mary Seacole ward in the Douglas Bader Centre in Roehampton.
   An exhibition to celebrate the bi-centenary of her birth opened at the Florence Nightingale museum in London in March 2005. Originally scheduled to last for a few months, the exhibition was so popular that it was extended to March 2007.
   The portrait identified as Seacole in 2005 was used for one of ten first-class stamps showing important Britons, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the National Portrait Gallery.

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