In this part of the story, Seacole was in Cruces, trying to find the bright side of Cruces life. She would deal with the problem that was occuring in there, which was that one of her brother's friend's died due to cholera, which was contagious. She told everyone that he died from the disease but they were not happy, "The Cruces people were mightily angry with me for expressing such an opinion; even my brother, although it relieved him of the odium of a great crime, was as annoyed as the rest" (pg.
In the narrative The Wonderful Aventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, Mrs. Seacole travels to London as a young woman and later as a widow trying to join the war effort. I find it intersting that she experiences much less racial prejudice in England than she does from the Americans in Panama. England serves as an important place in her identity because although she is Jamiacan, she still feels like she has a place in England.
Britain had dominated India since the 1750s and remained involved in the country for almost two centuries. The British people became known as the Raj in India. The Raj held India under strict bureaucratic control in the beginning. The closer India got to independence, the more lax British rule got, which led to India’s total freedom in the 20th century. The religion of India was primarily Hindu and was brought to the country by Ram Mahun Roy. Because of the amount of colonization in India, the culture has been saturated with influence from other places.
Sevastopol is a city located on the Crimean Peninsula. Modern Sevastopol was built by the Russian Empire in 1783 and eventually became a part of Ukraine in 1991. In 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea, Sevastopol became part of the Russian Federation and now operates as a Federal City like Moscow and St. Petersburg. Sevastopol was a city of major importance in the Crimean War, where the city was held under siege and hosted several famous battles, notably the Battle of Balaclava. In Wonderful Adventures of Mrs.
Holywood is a town in Northern Ireland that makes up part of the city of Belfast. It is a coastal village that was popular in the 18th and 19th century for its location as a resort and vacation spot. In Dinah Craik's The Half-Caste, Miss Pryor takes the Le Poer children and Zillah to Holywood to help Zillah overcome typhus fever. It is also where Zillah is almost seduced into marriage by Lieutenant Le Poer. Today Holywood is a residential area that hosts an annual jazz and blues festival.
The Port of Liverpool was an center of trade for the British Empire. It's docks and amanagement systems were state of the art before and during the Victorian age and the exhange of goods there made Liverpool a large and prosperous city. The Port was a very busy place bustling with bankers, tradesmen and sailors. It consisted of many different kinds of buildings such as warehouses, port docks, a mercantile center with a post office, banks, and cultural buildings.
Planning to establish a hotel in a dense location of travelers, Mrs Seacole visits her brother in the Isthmus of Panama who already owns the Independent Hotel. The beginning of the story highlights the time Mrs. Seacole spends in Panama practicing medicine, treating cholera, and running her own British Hotel next to her brothers. However, Mrs Seacole leaves Panama, bequething her hotel to her brother, after growing restless in the environment.
Seacole, Mary. Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands. Penguin Books, 2005.
Mrs Seacole was born in Kingston where she established her foundational knowledge of medicine with her mother. It is a personal place for Seacole and even though she travels throughout the world and sets roots, Jamaica has always been her home.
Seacole, Mary. Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands. Penguin Books, 2005.
