Books by Mary Seacole

Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (1857) is the autobiography of Mary Seacole. Recognized for her pioneering healthcare work for soldiers and citizens around the world, Seacole was also the first Black Briton to publish an autobiographical work. Although Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands underwent editing by an anonymous person, it is a first-person account of Seacole's experiences during outbreaks of cholera, malaria, and war. "As I grew into womanhood, I began to indulge that longing to travel which will never leave me while I have health and vigour. I was never weary of tracing upon an old map the route to England; and never followed with my gaze the stately ships homeward bound without longing to be in them, and see the blue hills of Jamaica fade into the distance." Adventurous and energetic, empathetic and kind, Mary Seacole was a pioneering traveler and healer who saved countless lives and cared for the sick and dying on both sides of the Atlantic. From her early work with cholera and malaria patients in the Caribbean to her famous British Hotel, opened on the outskirts of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, Seacole served the suffering without regard for her own health or finances.Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (1857) is one of the earliest autobiographies of a mixed-race woman. In her autobiography, Seacole records her bloodline thus: "I am a Creole, and have good Scots blood coursing through my veins. My father was a soldier of an old Scottish family." Legally, she was classified as a mulatto, a multiracial person with limited political rights. Seacole emphasises her personal vigour in her autobiography, distancing herself from the contemporary stereotype of the "lazy Creole", She was proud of her black ancestry, writing, "I have a few shades of deeper brown upon my skin which shows me related - and I am proud of the relationship - to those poor mortals whom you once held enslaved, and whose bodies America still owns." She also became widely known and respected, particularly among the European military visitors to Jamaica who often stayed at Blundell Hall. She treated patients in the cholera epidemic of 1850, which killed some 32,000 Jamaicans. However, the erection of a statue of her at St Thomas'' Hospital, London, on 30 June 2016, describing her as a "pioneer nurse", has generated controversy and opposition from supporters of Florence Nightingale. Earlier controversy broke out in the United Kingdom late in 2012 over reports of a proposal to add her to the UK''s National Curriculum.

The first autobiography written by a British black woman.

This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It contains classical literature works from over two thousand years. Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of international literature classics available in printed format again ¿ worldwide.

The memoirs of a Jamaican nurse, famed for her work among the sick and wounded of the Crimean War, offer the unique perspective of a Victorian-era black woman at a battlefield's front line.

Mrs Seacole, a free-born Jamaican daughter of a Scottish army officer and a free black woman, recounts her childhood, her years as a storekeeper in a Central American frontier town, and her role as a battlefield 'doctress' to British troops in the Crimea.

Written in 1857, this is the autobiography of a Jamaican woman whose fame rivalled Florence Nightingale's during the Crimean War. Seacole's offer to volunteer as a nurse in the war met with racism and refusal. Undaunted, Seacole set out independently to the Crimea where she acted as doctor and 'mother' to wounded soldiers while running her business, the 'British Hotel'. A witness to key battles, she gives vivid accounts of how she coped with disease, bombardment and other hardships at the Crimean battlefront."e;In her introduction to the very welcome Penguin edition, Sara Salih expertly analyses the rhetorical complexities of Seacole's book to explore the richness of her story. Traveller, entrepreneur, healer and woman of colour, Mary Seacole is a singular and fascinating figure, overstepping all conventional boundaries."e; Jan Marsh, Independent"e;It's hard to believe that this amazing adventure story is the true-life experience of a Jamaican woman - it would make a great film."e; Andrea Levy, Sunday Times