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Lessons 8

MARY SEACOLE

Read the story of Mary Seacole then answer the questions in sentences.

Mary Seacole's vocation in life was determined at an early age when she

helped her mother run a boarding house for wounded soldiers. Her book, published in 1857,
was the story of her travels around America, Russia and Europe, and her famous war work in
the Crimea.

It was often said that anyone less determined than Mrs Seacole would have given up trying

to get to the soldiers of the Crimean after being turned down by several Army and war
departments, including the War Office. Rumours that her offers of nursing help were also
rejected by Florence Nightingale are not mentioned in her book. It seems more likely that it
was one of Miss Nightingale's assistants who turned her away, as Miss Nightingale is

believed to have left for the Crimea by the time of Mrs Seacole's application.

The constant rejection was a sad blow to Mrs Seacole, who decided it was because ‘my blood
flowed beneath a somewhat duskier skin than theirs’. Mrs Seacole had met racial prejudice

before. She was once praised by a white American who suggested she be bleached to make
her ‘as acceptable in any company as she deserves to be’. Understandably, Mrs Seacole was
furious and replied, "I must say I don't altogether appreciate your kind wishes with respect
to my complexion." Such setbacks seemed to spur her on. Mrs Seacole felt the British

soldiers in the Crimea needed her, so she funded her own trip.

Together with a relative of her late husband's, she opened a shop and hotel near the British
camp near Balaclava. Mrs Seacole followed the troops, selling her medicines and provisions
and nursing the soldiers. Anyone who could not pay was treated for free. She was unafraid

of danger and often ventured onto the battlefield where, as a large, middle-aged black
woman in brightly coloured clothing, she made an unlikely figure.

She returned to England after the war, but was penniless and in ill health. Such was the

soldiers' love for the woman they called Mother Seacole that they organised a fund-raising
festival in her honour. Unfortunately it only raised £228, so it is believed that Mrs Seacole
wrote the book as a way of making a living.

1. What was it in her early life that had an impact on Mary Seacole? ____________________

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2. Which countries did she visit? ____________________________________________________

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