Peter Sleeth writes:

“Under her mother’s tutelage, Seacole learned traditional African and Caribbean herbal remedies, acquired nursing expertise, and developed an affinity for practicing medicine.3 Her ambitions are apparent in her diaries where, as a child, Seacole describes how she made “use of the little knowledge acquired from watching my mother, upon a great sufferer – my doll.”4

“While her mother influenced her interest in healing techniques, her father’s military position also facilitated her nursing career. Seacole attributed to her father her lifelong “affection for a camp-life (and) the pomp, pride and circumstance of glorious war.”5 Seacole’s nursing career began through an unofficial apprenticeship from the British Military and Naval Surgeons based in Kingston. While she never received any “official” accreditation, in 1850 she applied her medical knowledge and experiences by nursing those who had succumbed to the Jamaican cholera outbreak of that year…”

Read the rest:

https://nursingclio.org/2018/03/22/mary-seacole-care-jamaica-to-the-crimea/