Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands

Mary Seacole tells the story of her own extraordinary life, from a childhood in Jamaica, where her mother ran a boarding house and taught her the healing arts, through her travels in Panama and Central America and on to the battlefields of the Crimean War. Turned away by the British War Office, she paid her own passage and set up the British Hotel near the front, nursing wounded and dying soldiers under fire. Written in a warm, forthright voice, her 1857 memoir stands as one of the earliest autobiographies published by a Black woman in Britain and a vivid record of courage, enterprise, and compassion. Free PDF and EPUB edition available.