Facts on mary seacole

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She sold as much as she could off at low prices to Russian soldiers returning home.

She was warmly welcomed home on her return to London, attending a celebratory dinner at which she was the guest of honour.

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Mary Seacole later expressed exasperation at their feeble resistance, claiming they "bowed down before the plague in slavish despair".

Mary Seacole was forced to wait for a later British boat.

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British social commentator Patrick Vernon has opined that many of the claims that Mary Seacole's achievements were exaggerated have come from an establishment that is determined to suppress and hide the black contribution to British history.

facts on mary seacole

It was only in 1980 that her story was rediscovered by historians.

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At about this time, Mary Seacole began to wear military medals.

Mary Seacole was treated as a member of her patroness's family and received a good education. She travelled a remarkable amount

In 1821, Mary went to stay with relatives in London for a year, and in 1823, she travelled around the Caribbean, visiting Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas before returning to Kingston.

In this fascinating interview, Midge Gillies, author of acclaimed The Barbed-Wire University, discusses the role of the army wife over the centuries, and remarks on the extraordinary women who were pillars of support and strength in times of great hardship.

At one of her goodbye parties (she left Cruces to travel to Gorgona Island in 1852) a man made a speech to thank Mary for helping treat those who had been sick but exclaimed that it was a shame her skin wasn’t white as it would make her more acceptable.

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In researching his biography of Florence Nightingale, the first major biography in fifty years, Mark Bostridge uncovered a letter in the archive at the home of Nightingale's sister Parthenope Verney, which showed that Nightingale had made a contribution to Mary Seacole's fund, indicating that she saw value at that time in Mary Seacole's work in the Crimea.

Mary Seacole, although never the "black British nurse" she is claimed to have been, was a successful mixed-race immigrant to Britain.

73. She largely dictated to an editor, who improved her spelling and punctuation.

58. Seacole wrote in her own autobiography that she was fascinated by medicine from a young age and began to help her mother treat soldiers and patients when she was young, as well as observing military doctors on their ward rounds.

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In the 1800s, it was considered unusual for a woman to travel alone.