The UK’s first memorial statue of a named black woman, Mary Seacole, has been unveiled in London.
She was a Jamaican-born nurse who cared for wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War in the 19th Century.
The statue’s completion follows a 12-year campaign, which raised £500,000 to honour Mrs Seacole.
Campaigners said the bronze provided recognition of the contribution made by black and ethnic minority people throughout British history.
Actress and broadcaster Baroness Benjamin unveiled the statue.
Emeritus Professor of Nursing Elizabeth Anionwu said the unveiling was “extremely significant” because it was the first statue of a named black woman in the UK.
“For somebody like myself, a nurse of mixed heritage – Mary was Jamaican-Scottish, I’m Nigerian-Irish heritage – there’s a link there. I have an 8-year-old granddaughter, and at last youngsters will be able to see a beautiful monument that they can identify with.”
‘Aid and succour’
The statue, which was created by sculptor Martin Jennings and stands opposite the Houses of Parliament in the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital, also features a memorial disc.
It is inscribed with words written in 1857 by The Times’ Crimean War correspondent, Sir William Howard Russell: “I trust that England will not forget one who nursed her sick, who sought out her wounded to aid and succour them, and who performed the last offices for some of her illustrious dead.”
In November, Chancellor George Osborne announced the Treasury would contribute £240,000 to help pay for the installation.
Mary Seacole, 1805-1881
Born to a Scottish soldier and a Jamaican woman in 1805, Mary Jane Grantlearned her nursing skills from her mother, who kept a boarding house for invalid soldiers
She and her family had few civil rights – they could not vote, hold public office or enter the professions
Married Edwin Seacole in 1836 – he died eight years later
She travelled widely visiting the Caribbean, Central America and the UK. On these trips she studied traditional and European medical ideas
In 1854, she travelled to England and approached the War Office, asking to be sent as an Army nurse to the Crimea
She was refused but went anyway. Once there, she established the British Hotel near Balaclava to provide “comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers” and also nursed the wounded on the battlefield – sometimes under the hail of gunfire
She became known as “Mother Seacole” and, at the time, her reputation rivalled that of Florence Nightingale
After the war she returned to England destitute and in ill health
In July 1857 a benefit festival was organised to raise money for her, attracting thousands of people
She died on 14 May 1881
“If you have a statue for Florence Nightingale, you should have one for Mary Seacole,” said the historian Dr Ron Ramdin, who wrote her biography.
“She had no privileges. She had to make her own way, which in the 19th Century for a black woman was very difficult.
“The fact that when she met Florence Nightingale and she did not get the job nursing in the Scutari hospital didn’t faze her. She continued on her way to the front.”
do you want to know something?? I always wondered what the hell kind of hairstyle the Ancient Egyptians were trying to portray with depictions like these
and this
until I did my hair this morning and
oh
welp
you can take the noses off our statues but until you find a way to take Egypt out of Africa we’re still going to find ourselves
I’m reblogging this post without all the salty, racist commentary because I’m sick of looking at it. please spread this around again in its pure form for posterity.
What’s funny is that white people thought they were hats/crowns 😂
Edward Day Cahota and Corporal Joseph L. Pierce were two of a known total of 58 Asian soldiers who fought in the American Civil War. Pierce was the highest ranked Chinese-American to have served in the war and was at both the Battle of Gettysburg and Antietam ( x ). Cahota was found, half-starving on a ship when he was a child, before being adopted by the captain and growing up as a cabin boy. In 1864, he served under General Ulysses S. Grant.
Both Pierce and Cahota were denied citizenship, due to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, even despite the fact that Cahota had served for 30 years with the army. Cahota, however, “was said to have enjoyed telling his children that he had voted repeatedly—in fact, had cast his ballots for Republicans for 30 years—before it was found out that he was not really a citizen and therefore not qualified to vote.” ( x )
Did we mention that Joseph L. Pierce looked great in uniform?
2. Asian Women in WWII
As soon as the war began, Asian-American women entered the workforce along with their white neighbors. The Chinese Women’s Association raised over $30,000 in donations for war refugees, and women from all over the country contributed their skills and time to the war effort. Katherine Lowe, who was of Hawaiian and Chinese descent and her best friend Elizabeth Moku both applied for jobs at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. There they lugged around oil drums, trained to fight fires, and Moku played with an undefeated baseball team. ( x )
Across the Atlantic, British Asian Noor Inaya Khan served as a radio operator of a French resistance network, under the codename ‘Madeleine.’ She doggedly avoided capture as other members of the network were arrested, moving quickly and never staying in one place for very long. Betrayed by a Frenchwoman, Khan was finally found by the Gestapo, escaped from prison, only to be captured again soon after. She remained staunchly loyal, even under torture, and gave her life to the cause when she was sent to the Dachau concentration camp and executed. ( x )
Rosie the Riveter has always looked liked us. The question is when will Hollywood catch up with history.
3. Siguhara Chiune
The other WWII hero Spielberg could (and should) have made a movie about, Siguhara Chiune saved the lives of over 6,000 Jews by issuing them travel visas to Japan. Serving as Vice-Consul for Japan in Lithuania at the time, Sughara ignored the sky-high requirements the refugees couldn’t meet, and after consulting with his family, began writing visas in direct violation of his orders. And yet, not only did he issue visas illegally, he issued a months worth of them each day, spending 18-20 hours a day on his mission.
And there’s more:
On the night before their scheduled departure, Sugihara and his wife stayed awake writing out visa approvals. According to witnesses, he was still writing visas while in transit from his hotel and after boarding the train at the Kaunas Railway Station, throwing visas into the crowd of desperate refugees out of the train’s window even as the train pulled out.
In final desperation, blank sheets of paper with only the consulate seal and his signature (that could be later written over into a visa) were hurriedly prepared and flung out from the train. As he prepared to depart, he said, “Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best.” When he bowed deeply to the people before him, someone exclaimed, “Sugihara. We’ll never forget you. I’ll surely see you again!” ( x )
If that’s not Oscar bait, we don’t know what is.
4. Xiang Fe the Fragrant Concubine
Allow us to quote directly from Medieval POC, one of our favorite blogs on tumblr.
The Fragrant Concubine is a figure who blends history with legend in a way that has yet to be unraveled. She is said to have been an Uighur. The Uighurs are a Muslim Ethnic group concentrated in the Northwestern Chinese Province of Xinjiang […] According to legend, after the glorious defeat of the Uighurs in Altishahr in 1759, the triumphant Manchu general Zhahui returned to Beijing with war booty, including the remarkable consort […] said to emit a natural fragrance and became known as the Fragrant Concubine.
Although given to the Quinlong Emperor as a concubine, she resisted any intimate contact with him and carried small knives in the sleeves of her clothing in order to revenge the loss of her homeland. But he emperor was so entrances with her that he is said to have built a Muslim mosque and bazaar just beyond the southwest corner of the Beijing Palace…and a tower just inside the walls from which she could supposedly ease her homesickness by watching her fellow Muslims conducting business and going to the mosque.
Wipe the unfortunate caricatures from Pirates of the Caribbean 3 out of your mind. Ching Shih not only gave the colonial powers a run for their money, she was one of the few pirates to live long and well enough to retire, let alone do so with an undefeated track record of terror. A prostitute kidnapped by pirates, she married their captain and maneuvered her way into power after his death by building rapport with her rivals. She united the fleet of pirates her husband began under a new moral code of law, which included a death sentence for any pirate who raped a female captive. ( x )
The Pirates of the Malabar had their fair share of adventure as well. Lead by Kanhoji Angre, the Maratha Confederacy attacked merchant ships of the East India Trading Company, and in 1712, Angre captured the British President of Mumbai. In 1715, the new British President of Mumbai tried to return the favor, only have three of his ships taken and his port blockaded. Angre ransomed 8,750 pounds from the East India Company for his troubles. Considered a hero by anti-imperialists, a statue of Angre stands in the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai. ( x )
