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DATE OF BIRTH
Mary Seacole was born in 1805 in Kingston, Jamaica. -
Period: to
FAMILY
Her mother was Jamaican and her
father was Scottish. Her mother ran a boarding
house for invalid soldiers and was also an expert
in herbal remedies, which she used to treat the
soldiers. -
THE BOARDING HOUSE
When her mother died, Mary took over
the boarding house and the care of the sick
soldiers. -
CHOLERA
In 1850 there was a serious outbreak of
cholera in Jamaica. Mary worked night and day
to help the victims and created her own herbal
medicine for the disease. -
Period: to
CRIMEAN WAR
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THE BLACK NIGHTINGALE
Mary decided to go to the Crimea where she opened a boarding house there to earn the money to finance her nursing work. She regularly went out onto the battlefields to feed and care for the fallen soldiers, often putting her
own life in danger. The soldiers loved her and called her ‘the black nightingale’. -
HER BOOK
She wrote her autobiography called ‘The
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many
Lands’. This was the only book she ever wrote,
but it was very successful and generated enough
money to allow her to live the rest of her life in
comfort, -
FORGOTTEN
She died in 1881 and was buried in
London, but as the years passed, her story was
forgotten outside of her native Jamaica. -
Period: to
THE REDISCOVERY
In 1973 a British nurse bought an old copy of
Mary’s book in a second-hand bookshop.In 1984 ‘The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands’ was reprinted so that Mary’s story could reach a wider audience. -
THE GREATEST BLACK BRITON
A woman called Mary Seacole was voted the ‘Greatest Black Briton’ of all time in a BBC poll.