Black Heroes: Mother Seacole

Growing up in Jamaica I lived on an all women's college called Short Wood Teacher's College.  It's an old plantation that was turned into a school, many of the old buildings were still there, but there were a few new ones as well, one of my all time favorite buildings was the Math & Science department because my mother's best friend was in charge there, so I got to roam the halls at will. This building fascinated me because it was called the Mary Seacole Building, & it had a portrait of a larger than life woman, my mother always had an answer for who she was, she was called Mother Seacole & she was the face of modern nursing for Jamaicans, she was a hero. (Source: my mother)

Born Mary Jane Seacole in 1805, she was a mixed descent of Creole mother & Scottish soldier int he British Army. Mary's mother was a healer of the old ways and she taught her daughter man of her traditions, including those pertaining to herbs. Mary learned her nursing skills at the hands of her mother while helping her treat men who were suffering from Yellow fever in Jamaica.  Her mother owned a hotel that mostly served the soldiers & those that were ill were taken care of by her.

Later on Mary was sent away to be educated  with a older woman, then from 1821-1825 she travelled extensively to London & back to Jamaica bringing with her spices and preserves to sell.  In 1826 she returned to Jamaica & nursed her old Patroness (the woman who educated her) until the woman passed some years later, then she returned tot he family home of Blundell Hall, where she returned to her roots of helping her mother in nursing and also helping out at the local British Hospital.  With her skills she travelled the Caribbean extensively and then returns home in 1836 where she marries Edwin Seacole on November 10th.

Her husband later passed in October of 1844, and so did her mother, leaving Mary in charge of the hotel her mother had built up.  Mary sought refuge in the work of making the hotel a success and she became popular among the British soldiers who stayed on the island, due to her hospitality   During the 1850 Cholera epidemic Mary treated many patients, and it was her belief that the disease was brought to the idea by a boat coming from New Orleans, Louisiana.  (source)

Her belief about the contagion theory would later help her in the Crimean War, the same war that made Nightingale a household name.  Mary later moved to Panama, where she created an all women's hotel and continued her nursing skills, advancing her esteem among the British and the new Americans there.  Later she would return to Jamaica and with the British's urging formed a nursing corp of women to help in the hospital.  (source)  In 1854 with the help of her late husband's friend she travelled to London to volunteer with Nightingale's Nurses who were going to the aide of the soldiers who were wounded;  she was rejected as a black woman and was told they had no more need of nurses.  She applied to the British War Office & they also turned her down.  Mary poured her resources into collecting nurses who wished to go and getting resources and made the trip to the Peninsula  there she briefly met up with Nightingale; who despite needing the help rebuffed her efforts.

Mary decided to open a hotel and used scraps to do so, she ran the hotel six days a week and treated soldiers and their ailes after serving them, she also went out and sought out the wounded and helped as much as she could.  When news of her efforts made it back to Florence Nightingale, she accused Mary of running a brothel.  Many dismissed Florence's accusations due to the glowing references many of the officers and war correspondents as well as returning soldiers gave Mary including the one below:

In a dispatch written on 14 September 1855, William Howard Russell, special correspondent of The Times, wrote that she was a "warm and successful physician, who doctors and cures all manner of men with extraordinary success. She is always in attendance near the battle-field to aid the wounded and has earned many a poor fellow's blessing." Russell also wrote that she "redeemed the name of sutler", and another that she was "both a Miss Nightingale and a [chef]". Seacole made a point of wearing brightly coloured, and highly conspicuous, clothing—often bright blue, or yellow, with ribbons in contrasting colours.^[69] While Lady Alicia Blackwood later recalled that Seacole had "... personally spared no pains and no exertion to visit the field of woe, and minister with her own hands such things as could comfort or alleviate the suffering of those around her; freely giving to such as could not pay ..." (Source)

Despite her success in Crimea, when the war ended Mary was left destitute  she returned to London, where a fund was created by the grateful men who survived due to her care, including the nephew of Queen Victoria.   While many grew to know and honor the name of Florence, the men who were helped by Mary never forgot her, and she wrote her autobiography (being the first black woman to do so in Britain) in it was a preface that stated:

"I have witnessed her devotion and her courage ... and I trust that England will never forget one who has nursed her sick, who sought out her wounded to aid and succour them and who performed the last offices for some of her illustrious dead."

And now you know who was my role model of a nurse ( I mean other than family members).  Mary did things other women couldn't do at the time, heck she did things Black women couldn't do at the time. She was a good woman who made up her mind that she was going to succeed with or without the establishment's help and she did it.  Black Nurses everywhere should know her name. Actually i think Nurses everywhere should know her name,

Close up of a portrait of Mary by Albert Challen

She is a hero, a role model,  a woman of substance.

Resources to Learn More

•  Her autobiography is FREE on Amazon at the moment, so go get it!!  
• Click here for a list of books about Mary. 
•  If you have children you wish to teach about Mary, the BBC has a wonderful website dedicated to her here

 Happy Black History Month my loves

Febuary Lovers: Mr & Mrs. Loving

Welcome to episode 1 of the February Lovers of 2012.

Have you ever seen a couple she beautiful, him handsome walking down the street, nothing about them is truly particularity different other than they are a interracial couple, maybe one is Caucasian & the other Black, maybe they are Asian & Black; whatever they ethnicity it's the love that shines through. You yourself (like me) maybe involved with a interracial relationship, I am a product of an interracial relationship, I like many of you have the right to these relationships due to those who came before us and fought for those rights.

Let’s be real the mixing of races here in America has not always been for love, or by choice. Many times it was the way to survive to make sure you progeny got a better life than you did, sometimes it was due to rape.

There are instances however that show us that it does happen for love, that there are people who would willingly stand up and fight for their heart’s true desire, and such is the case of Mr and Mrs, Loving. the couple from Virginia fled to Washington DC to get married due to the law on the books in Virginia which prevented the intermarrying of Caucasian and Blacks, this law called the “Racial Integrity Act” made it a criminal offence to knowingly have sex with another race, & a federal offence to marry another race. 

Arrested, tried and found guilty in Virgina they were sentenced to 1 year in jail or a suspended sentence if they left the state for 25 years; they took the suspended sentence and fled to DC, there they met with lawyers from the ACLU and on November 6, 1965, filed a lawsuit against the state of Virginia for violation of the 14th Amendment. As noted by the fact that you and I can date, have sex with and marry whomever we wish (I’m not discussing the LGBT community at the moment) you can tell they won.

On January 22, 1965  the case went before the Virginia Supreme Court, the judges upheld the Virginia Law.  The people who actually helped the ACLU team were the churches, the Presbyterian Church, then UU Association, & the Roman Catholic Church stepped into say

"laws which prohibit, inhibit or hamper marriage or cohabitation between persons because of different races, religions, or national origins should be nullified or repealed."^{[ (wikipedia/loving v Virginia)}

Prior to the Loving case, there were a few others that challenged the law including Pace v Alabama, Perez v Sharp, each laid the groundwork which allowed the Loving case to proceed to the Supreme Court; on June 12, 1967 the court ruled in favour of the Lovings with this statement: 

“Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State”

Despite the ruling, many of these laws remained on the books although un~ enforceable until Alabama repealed the law in 2000.

Yes you read that right, until 2000.  Now I didn’t mean to give you a history lesson, but every time I look at my partner, every time I look at my siblings & my Grandmere (or her pictures, since she has passed) I see the descendants of interracial love, and I am grateful everyday for these people.

Now to make this story even more personal, my favourite place to be during high school was the library, I volunteered there during my free periods and during my senior year when I only had homeroom & 1 other class, I was there all the time. My school librarian, one of the coolest women I knew and was very into discussing Black history with me, her name was Ms. Loving, as in the granddaughter of Mr & Mrs. Loving. When I saw the movie and went to school that Monday, she laughed when I walked in and said yes she had seen the show, she gave a talk during Black History Month and brought along family pictures, and shared those with us.
Talk about touching history, this is the story of a love that took on a state and went to bat for all those who couldn’t, This was a love that lasted until Mr Richard Loving preceded his wife into death in June 1975, and she later passed on May 2, 2008

Officially Loving Day is the day the courts overturned the rule, June 12th, but every Valentine’s Day, when my partners & I are enjoying this day for Lovers I always stop to light a candle for the ones who helped to make this love possible.

Even if your aren’t in an interracial romance, can you please light a candle today for all the lovers past and present who are in need of passion, comfort, Love and romance.

**If your in NYC they have a display of pictures from the Loving family, intimate portraits, why not take a look and see. Link is above with their names.**

Be Blessed, be happy, Be Love

"The rebels old obeah woman"

In Jamaica we have what are called our National Heroes, people who are honored for their exemplary service to the Country, as freedom fighters, politicians, or simply those who’s voices carried deep to inspire our countrymen in their greatest times of need. The only woman among the original 7 National Heroes, is a woman, all women should take pride in. Her name is Queen Nanny.

No one is quite sure when Nanny was born, but she was a fierce young woman when she arrived on the island in c1686. She and several of her people, as well as several of her brothers were from the Asante' or Ashanti tribe of Ghana, West Africa; were captured and were brought across on the "Middle Passage" and dropped off in Jamaica, to a plantation in Saint Thomas Parish, where they were made to raise sugar cane.

Nanny, who many of her followers claim, was the daughter of the leader of their tribe, chose to run away with her brothers, rather than be a slave. They ran for the Blue Mountains, which is the interior of the island, there they created several free holds for other slaves to run away to.  These independent African societies were complete with towns, crops and armies, the ranks of which were constantly being supplied by newly freed runaways. Nanny Town, as it later came to be called, which was founded in 1720, by Nanny and her brother Quao, was a 600 acre parcel of land in Portland, which the Maroons took refuge. The other towns founded by her brothers included: Cudjoe who went to Saint James Parish and founeded Cudjoe Town; Accompong went to Saint Elizabeth Parish and founded Accompong Town.

Nanny organized small raiding parties which went to different plantations and helped to free the slaves; sometimes they freed the entire plantation. Mostly non confrontational in the beginning, this changed when the British took over the island in 1655 from the Spanish. During the vacuum created by the power exchange, many more slaves ran away and joined the different tribes of what was now being called the "Maroons", the freed slaves, intermarried with the remaining Arawak Indians who were native to the island.  The Arawak Indians, shared their intimate knowledge of the island with the Maroons, which allowed them to do guerrilla style hit missions.These missions entailed raiding the plantations of their weapons, and supplies, and freeing their slaves.  To survive the Maroons would also trade with nearby villages and market towns, for items they could not raise, hunt or make for themselves, such as weapons and cloth.

Once the British were in power, Nanny the leader of the Maroons helped to launch an 30 year struggle against them.The British however did not take kindly to the 'liberation of their properties' and Nanny became a marked woman. The activities of the Maroons sparked island-wide slave revolts in 1690 and 1734. Whole regiments of the British army were annihilated in battle with the Maroon forces. This was mainly accomplished by the layout of the land, the Maroon towns were placed in strategic positions of almost impenetrable fortresses. Nanny Town was in the basin of a mountain valley which had one entrance, a shear mountain pass which overlooked the Stony River, via a 900 foot ridge. This made it impossible for the British to do surprise attacks, but Nanny placed look outs anyway, they would alert the town of immanent attack via a horn called an Abeng. (much like the image in the painting above)

The British were never able to defeat them. As the Maroons were prone to ambushing the soldiers sent after them, by disguising themselves as the local fauna of bush and trees, they would then send an undisguised man where the British could see him; he would then run back leading the soldiers back to the hidden warriors. This method worked for years, especially for Nanny as the land she had chosen made it impossible for more than one solider at a time to pass, creating a bottle neck effect, and effectively making the soldiers easy targets.

In 1734, a Captain Stoddart attacked the remnants of Nanny Town, "situated on one of the highest mountains in the island", via "the only path" available: "He found it steep, rocky, and difficult, and not wide enough to admit the passage of two persons abreast." (Edwards vol. 1, page 525) 

He then fired on the remaining huts of sleeping villagers, as most of the Maroons had traveled to the other tribes of Nanny's brothers in the West of the island.

Several more years of battle took place before the British declared peace with the Maroons in 1739 (you read that right 1739), and recognized their independence and their right to large areas of the island, mostly within the valleys and mountains.

"Nanny and the people now residing with her and their heirs . . . a certain parcel of Land containing five hundred acres in the parish of Portland . . ." (quoted in Campbell 177, 175)

Nanny's death was believed to have taken place  in 1733, or so the rumors circulated.

"In the Journal of the Assembly of Jamaica, 29–30 March 1733, we find a citation for "resolution, bravery and fidelity" awarded to "loyal slaves . . . under the command of Captain Sambo", namely William Cuffee, who was rewarded for having fought the Maroons in the First Maroon War and who is called "a very good party Negro, having killed Nanny, the rebels old obeah woman" (Campbell 177). These hired soldiers were known as "Black Shots" (Campbell 37). It is likely that Cuffee was motivated by the reward, a common practice by plantations to discourage slaves escaping." Nanny's remains are buried at "Bump Grave" in Moore Town, one of the communities established by the Windward Maroons in Portland Parish. (taken from the Wikipedia website)"

In her time as leader of the Maroons, Nanny freed over 800 slaves, she is the blueprint for Harriet Tubman. Much like Harriet was a nurse, Nanny was the 'obeah' woman of her tribe. Obeah or Voodoo as it's now called was the Ashanti's religion, which allowed Nanny to be both healer and Spiritual leader to her people. Her knowledge of herbs, and the traditional healing methods, elevated her esteem among her people. 

You can learn more about the brave Ashanti Woman here, as well as here. There is information as well on the Jamaican National Hero website, Although much of what is known about Nanny comes from the oral history of the Maroons, the British letters and diaries of the military leaders in charge lend credibility to the stories.

Now you know one of the reasons Jamaican woman walk with their heads held so high, this is our blueprint of a strong woman.
Be Blessed my loves

My Version of Black History Month

I’m Jamaican, I believe I have stated that several times here on the blog. For me being Jamaican goes beyond the food, the music and the pride of our unique culture, there is a bone deep love that nothing and no one has ever been able to come close to, a pride in knowing who we are. 


 You see Jamaica was the stop on the Middle Passage where the slave ships dumped the slaves they couldn’t handle. The trouble makers, the ones they noted others listening or paying attention to, Jamaica was the stop before the ships reached their final destination of the American shores.   There is a deep pride in knowing your people made life difficult for those attempting to take advantage, that you come from the stock of fighters.
When I was growing up I learned all about the Hereos of Jamaica, indeed of the Caribbean, and it’s a totally different history from the one found here in the Americas, maybe because we were an island cut off from the help the masters needed to really contriol the slaves, maybe it’s because we outnumbered them, or maybe it was because we learned the land we had to work more intimately than the masters, but those ‘troublemakers’ took full advantage and gave their slave masters hell.

So this month instead of talking about the pacifists, and the ones who "turned their cheek”, instead of the ‘peaceful protestors’ I wish to share a different look at Black History. I wish to share the story of the Heroes of the Caribbean, and of the Americas, the heroes you never really learn about in history class. I wish to talk about the fighters.


I have nothing against Dr. King, but I do dislike how history is being white washed and sanitized as well as being re-written with much of the other Freedom Fighters being slowly taken out of the books, and not being taught to our children. I want to hold up more than Dr. King as the ideal of who Black men and women should look to, because there are more leaders, more examples of who we are and who we have fought to become. 


There is a deep pride in knowing your history and your ancestors, and slowly that right to learn who they are is being taken from us, take for example the Arizona law which will no longer allow the teaching of “ Ethnic Studies” as it will “advocate ethnic solidarity". O_o  Right because the students who are mostly Native American, Hispanic and Black shouldn’t learn the history of  that isn't discussed in most 'history' books? Maybe if the curricular actually covered and really discussed the contributions of other races to the building of what we call "America" there would be no need for special 'ethnic studies' courses;  but since there is no fair representation, there is a need for these classes. And unfortunately there is a need for a month like Black History Month, because it's the only time the contributions of Blacks to the "American Dream" is ever discussed.


So I will be doing a post each week covering the contributions of those who aren't discussed this month, and hope that you learn something new.
Or be reminded about something you did know
Be Blessed