英文杂志-Magazine：Mary Seacole

Mary Seacoleby Linda BaxterThe most famous nurse of all time must be Florence Nightingale, the ‘lady with the lamp’, who became famous for her work during the Crimean War in the middle of the nineteenth century. But have you heard of Mary Seacole?

I hope your answer is ‘Yes’, but I must admit that, until recently, the name meant nothing to me at all. Then, earlier this year, I read that a woman called Mary Seacole had been voted the ‘Greatest Black Briton’ of all time in a BBC poll¹. I was shocked to realise that I had no idea who she was. When I found out more about her I realised that she was ‘the black Florence Nightingale’ that I had heard mentioned on a BBC history programme a few years ago. So I did some research. What was her story? And, more importantly, why isn’t her name as well known as Florence Nightingale’s?

The storyMary Seacole was born in 1805 in Kingston, Jamaica. Her mother was Jamaican and her father was Scottish. Her mother ran a boarding house for invalid² soldiers and was also an expert in herbal remedies, which she used to treat the soldiers. When her mother died, Mary took over the boarding house and the care of the sick soldiers. In 1850 there was a serious outbreak of cholera³ in Jamaica. Mary worked night and day to help the victims and created her own herbal medicine for the disease. She also believed that clean conditions, fresh air and good food were important in fighting the disease, ideas which most doctors thought were ridiculous. She saved the lives of thousands of people.

The warWhen the Crimean War started, Jamaican troops were sent to fight, and stories soon started to reach Kingston about the terrible conditions that they were suffering, and how badly they needed nursing care. So Mary travelled to London in 1854 and presented herself at the War Office as a volunteer nurse. But they refused her. She went to all the military and nursing organisations but not one of them wanted her services. So Mary decided⁴ to go to the Crimea independently. She opened a boarding house there to earn the money to finance⁵ her nursing work. She regularly went out onto the battlefields to feed and care for the fallen soldiers, often putting her own life in danger. The soldiers loved her and called her ‘the black nightingale’.

The fameWhen the war finished Mary came back to London as a famous figure - well known and well loved by the British people, but completely bankrupt⁶ as a result of her work. Some of the officers and soldiers who knew her raised money for her, but she still had financial problems. So Mary once again decided to do something herself. She wrote her autobiography⁷ called ‘The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands’. This was the only book she ever wrote, but it was very successful and generated⁸ enough money to allow her to live the rest of her life in comfort, dividing her time between Jamaica and London. She died in 1881 and was buried in London, but as the years passed, her story was forgotten outside of her native Jamaica.

The rediscoveryIn 1973 a British nurse bought an old copy of Mary’s book in a second-hand⁹ bookshop. She did some detective work and found Mary’s forgotten grave in a London cemetery¹⁰. She organised the restoration of the grave and a special ceremony was held to honour her. People began to hear about Mary and she became a symbol for people involved in civil rights, anti-racism¹¹ campaigns, women’s liberation¹² and of course, nursing groups. In 1981 a special service was held to mark the centenary of her death. In 1984 ‘The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands’ was reprinted so that Mary’s story could reach a wider audience. And of course, as you already know, she was voted the Greatest Black Briton in 2004.

So, the question remainsWhy was Mary Seacole forgotten? Racism? Prejudice against such an independent woman? Florence Nightingale was white and had friends in high places. Mary Seacole was black but overcame a lot of the racial prejudice against her and had friends in high places too. Both women wrote books. Florence Nightingale’s ‘Notes on Nursing’ became a standard nursing textbook, whereas¹³ Mary Seacole wrote nothing about the theory of nursing. The medical community accepted Florence Nightingale, whereas Mary Seacole worked independently, outside of the hospitals, and without the supervision¹⁴ of doctors. Whatever the reasons, after a hundred years of obscurity, Mary Seacole isn’t going to be forgotten again.

 

1 poll   

n.民意测验，民意调查，选举投票

参考例句：

• The result of the poll won't be known until midnight.选举结果要到午夜才能揭晓。
• They expected a heavy poll.他们期望会有很高的投票数。

2 invalid   

n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的

参考例句：

• He will visit an invalid.他将要去看望一个病人。
• A passport that is out of date is invalid.护照过期是无效的。

3 cholera   

n.霍乱

参考例句：

• The cholera outbreak has been contained.霍乱的发生已被控制住了。
• Cholera spread like wildfire through the camps.霍乱在营地里迅速传播。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 finance   

n.财务管理，财政，金融，财源，资金

参考例句：

• She is an expert in finance.她是一名财政专家。
• A finance house made a bid to buy up the entire company.一家信贷公司出价买下了整个公司。

6 bankrupt   

n.破产者；adj.破产的；vt.使...破产

参考例句：

• That factory has gone bankrupt.那家工厂倒了。
• The enemy's scheme went bankrupt.敌人的计谋破产了。

7 autobiography   

n.自传

参考例句：

• He published his autobiography last autumn.他去年秋天出版了自己的自传。
• His life story is recounted in two fascinating volumes of autobiography.这两卷引人入胜的自传小说详述了他的生平。

8 generated   

a.生成的

参考例句：

• It is generated by some specified means. 这是由某些未加说明的方法产生的。
• It generated much excitement and frenetic activity. 这使人们非常激动并导致了狂热的行动。

9 second-hand   

adj.用过的，旧的，二手的

参考例句：

• I got this book by chance at a second-hand bookshop.我赶巧在一家旧书店里买到这本书。
• They will put all these second-hand goods up for sale.他们将把这些旧货全部公开出售。

10 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

11 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

12 liberation   

n.解放，解放运动（为获得平等权利和地位的行为）

参考例句：

• We should help those who are still struggling for liberation.我们应当帮助那些仍在为独立而斗争的人们。
• Many people died during famines every year before liberation.解放前每年有许多人在饥荒中死亡。

13 whereas   

conj.而，却，反之

参考例句：

• They want a house,whereas we would rather live in a flat.他们想要一座房子，而我们宁愿住在一套房间里。
• Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。

14 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。