The Adventures of Mary Seacole

WOOW!! Today in class, I was greatly moved to hear about such a courageous woman. Mrs. Mary Seacole to be exact! As said in class today, Mary was extremely motivated and wanted to insure to make a difference in society. She took the time to make and establish a name for herself by her entrepreneurship investments. She followed her pursuit of happiness by engaging in being a traveler, a nurse and a business woman. While her time as a nurse, she worked closely with the British and African American communities.

With that in mind, in Gorgona, Seacole established a women's only hotel for the women that were sick.

Also, she displayed confidence in her knowledge of tropical medicine by investing in it because she knew that it could be useful. After finding out about the poor medical provisions for wounded soldiers during the Crimean War, she took pursuit to London to volunteer as a nurse. As she volunteered as a nurse, her background experience in the Caribbean is what she relied on. Furthermore, she applied to the War Office and asked to be sent as an army assistant to the Crimea. Unfortunately, she was denied because during her time period, women were still treated unequal and there was a great sense of prejudice acts in women's involvement in medicine.

Moving forward,  The British Government later decided to permit women to travel to the affected areas, but again she was not included in the party of 38 nurses chosen by Florence Nightingale. So she took it amongst herself to still pursue her happiness. So, she borrowed money to take the 4,000 mile trip by herself. How remarkable is that? This here is a woman that wont let her goals be altered by rejection. As she pursued her journey, she distinguished herself by treating battlefield wounded individuals, and also nursing wounded soldiers from both sides of the war.

When the war ended, she found herself stranded, alone and living without the basic elements of life, while still trying to pursue her dreams. She was able to confide in a friend from the Crimean War who organized a benefit concert.

In later years, she expressed her desire of wanting to work in India after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, but was unable to raise the necessary funds.

Something that I find to be extremely ironic is the fact behind her sickness of Cholera, which is an infection in the small intestine. She spent her entire life protecting and nursing sicknesses, she became sick herself.

Mary Seacole was a remarkable woman who made major moves to establish herself in society. Im so very proud of her and she has made the women culture very strong as a whole just from her life story alone!!