Written in 1857, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands is the autobiography of a Jamaican woman whose fame rivaled Florence Nightingale s during the Crimean War. Seacole traveled widely before arriving in London, where her offer to volunteer as a nurse in the war was met with racism and refusal. Undaunted, she set out independently to the Crimea, where she acted as doctor and mother to wounded soldiers while running her business, the British Hotel. Told with energy, warmth, and humor, her remarkable life story and accounts of hardships at the battlefront offer significant...