Mary Seacole

Homeschool History

This episode of Homeschool History follows the remarkable life of Mary Seacole, a 19th-century Jamaican healer and businesswoman. The narrat

Key takeaways

Mary Seacole was born Mary Grant in 1805 in Jamaica.
She learned traditional African and Jamaican herbal medicine from her mother, a 'doctress'.

Main topics

Early life and Jamaican heritage
Business ventures in Panama

Notable quotes

There was no disease in Kingston that her poor dollies didn't catch at some point.

Conclusion

The episode serves as an inspiring tribute to a woman whose entreprene

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:01) BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. Speaker 3 (0:08) Hello and welcome to Homeschool History. I'm Greg Jenner, the historian behind TV's Horrible Histories and the host of the BBC Radio 4 podcast, You're Dead to Me. I'm here to deliver a snappy history lesson to entertain and educate the whole family. Who says that homeschooling can't be fun? And today we are going back to the 19th century to meet an extraordinary woman who travelled the world all whilst helping the sick and injured. It's the marvellous Mary Seacole. Mary was born Mary Grant in 1805 on the Caribbean island of Jamaica, which at the time was a British colony. It would have been jam-packed with soldiers. Speaker 4 (0:43) Attention, men! Speaker 3 (0:44) And sailors. Speaker 3 (0:47) Mary's dad was a Scottish army officer called James Grant. Sadly, we don't know Mary's mum's name, but we know that she was a mixed-race Jamaican woman who owned a hotel in Kingston called Blundell Hall. Mary also had a sister, Louisa, and a half-brother, Edward. Blundell Hall was considered one of the best hotels in Jamaica's capital, Kingston. Mary was fascinated by healing. Her mum was known as a doctress. meaning she practised traditional African and Jamaican herbal medicine. And when she was a little girl, Mary practised her healing skills on her dolls. She said there was no disease in Kingston that her poor dollies didn't catch at some point. Speaker 4 (1:27) They're there. All better now. But Speaker 3 (1:29) it wasn't all make-believe. Some of the British officers staying in Mary's mum's hotel caught nasty diseases, such as yellow fever, so Mary would have seen some very poorly people. And growing up, Mary was also supported by a wealthy woman who was a bit like a grandmother to her. She gave Mary an education, while Mary's mum showed her how to run a hotel business. Mary visited London twice as a teenager, and in those days, the journey from Jamaica to Britain took at least six weeks by boat. Bad luck if you got easily seasick. And that wasn't the only thing that Mary had to worry about. She was a young, mixed-race woman and she later wrote that her Jamaican friends got bullied in London for the colour of their skin. Horrible. The second time Mary went to London, she travelled alone as a businesswoman. Speaker 3 (2:19) Well, OK, business not quite woman? Business teenager? Yeah, probably something like that. Anyway, she was selling Caribbean pickles and preserves. Mary then returned to Jamaica to work at Blundell Hall. When she was 31, she married a white English merchant called Edwin Horatio Hamilton Seacole. Great name. This was quite unusual at the time, as mixed-race marriages were not common in Jamaica. Mary and her new hubby opened a shop. But sadly, the business did not go well. Speaker 3 (2:50) So back they went to Blundell Hall, and this was when things went really bad for Mary. In 1843, Blundell Hall burned down. And the year after, both Mary's husband and mother tragically died. Poor Mary had to pick herself back up and rebuild Blundell Hall, which she imaginatively renamed New Blundell Hall. Speaker 3 (3:14) Fair enough. After Edwin died, Mary got plenty of blokes asking to marry her, but she turned them all down. In 1850, there was an outbreak of a terrible disease called cholera. Once that was over, Mary was in her mid-forties and she decided to go travelling again.