Alex Massie Alex Massie

Yes, Mary Seacole was Black. So what?

I confess that until recently I had never heard of Mary Seacole. But, like Boris Johnson, who found himself in this position a few years ago, that reflects poorly on me, not on the redoubtable Seacole.

Brother Liddle says that her inclusion upon new lists of eminent Victorians can only be explained “solely and utterly because she was black”. That she was and doubtless that does indeed have something to do with her renewed prominence. But what of it? (I say renewed prominence, incidentally, because it is quite clear that her contemporaries regarded her as a figure of some stature.)

And if she is only remembered today “because she was black” then, who knows, perhaps her disappearance from history for a century or more also had something to do with the colour of her skin. Perhaps not. I don’t know. Nor do I much care.

Only a fathead could imagine that there’s some kind of competition between Seacole and Florence Nightingale, but only a fathead would assume that it’s only legitimate to learn about one of them. Clearly, I think, Nightingale’s work in the Crimea was more important than Seacole’s. But that doesn’t mean the latter’s efforts were inconsequential. Besides, her story is interesting for other reasons beyond the ups and downs of what was, by any estimate, a pretty remarkable life.

If Seacole receives more prominence today than might strictly be thought her due then that doesn’t seem so very terrible after a century of neglect. Besides, history isn’t immutable and, just as novelists drift in and out of fashion, so do historical figures.

Actually, Seacole’s story seems worth rescuing from history’s bin of discarded celebrities. That’s because I don’t think it takes too much imagination to appreciate that, taught well, her life has a useful bearing on this moment in British history.

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