Written in 1857 by a free-born Jamaican Creole, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands presents a special kind of success story. With delightful urbanity and wit, Mary Seacole recounts her childhood as a daughter of a Scottish army officer and free black boardinghouse keeper, her years as a storekeeper in a Central American frontier town, and her role as a battlefield "doctress" in the Crimean War. Seeking to reconcile her desire for economic...