In The Caribbean, 1826–51
After returning to Jamaica, Seacole nursed her "old indulgent patroness" through an illness, finally returning to the family home at Blundell Hall after the death of her patroness a few years later. Seacole then worked alongside her mother, occasionally being called to assist at the British Army hospital at Up-Park Camp. During this period she travelled around the Caribbean, visiting the British colony of New Providence in The Bahamas, the Spanish colony of Cuba, and new republic of Haiti. Seacole records these travels, but omits mention of significant current events, such as the Christmas Rebellion in Jamaica of 1831, the partial abolition of slavery in 1834, or the full abolition of slavery in 1838.
She married Edwin Horatio Hamilton Seacole in Kingston on 10 November 1836. Her marriage from betrothal to widowhood is described in just nine lines at the conclusion of the first chapter of her autobiography. His middle names are intriguing: Robinson reports the legend in the Seacole family that Edwin was an illegitimate son of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson and his mistress Emma, Lady Hamilton, who was adopted by Thomas, a local "surgeon, apothecary and man midwife". Seacole's will indicates that Horatio Seacole was Nelson's godson; she left a diamond ring to her friend, Lord Rokeby, "given to my late husband by his Godfather Viscount Nelson", although there was no mention of this godson in Nelson's will or its codicils. Edwin was a merchant and seems to have had a poor constitution. The newly married couple moved to Black River and opened a provisions store, which failed to prosper. They returned to Blundell Hall in the early 1840s.
During 1843 and 1844, Seacole suffered a series of personal disasters. She and her family lost much of the boarding house in a fire in Kingston on 29 August 1843. Blundell Hall burned down, and was replaced by New Blundell Hall, which was described as "better than before". Then her husband died in October 1844, followed by her mother. After a period of grief, in which Seacole says she did not stir for days, she composed herself, "turned a bold front to fortune", and assumed the management of her mother's hotel. She put her rapid recovery down to her hot Creole blood, blunting the "sharp edge of grief" sooner than Europeans who "nurse their woe secretly in their hearts". She absorbed herself into work, declining many offers of marriage. She later became widely known and respected, particularly amongst the European military visitors to Jamaica who often stayed at Blundell Hall. She treated patients in the cholera epidemic of 1850, which killed some 32,000 Jamaicans. Seacole attributed the outbreak to infection brought on a steamer from New Orleans, Louisiana, demonstrating knowledge of contagion theory. This first-hand experience benefited her in the following five years.
Read more about this topic: Mary Seacole