Chapter Ii

Creole Performance in Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands

“…The narrator describes herself as a 'hot-blooded Creole' when she quickly recovers from her husband's death and as 'one of an impulsive people' who finds 'it hard to put that restraint upon my feelings which to you [English] is so easy and natural' when she cries after her attempts to serve in the Crimea are twice thwarted. 68 While these Creole characteristics render her 'knowable' in a limited way to English readers, they nonetheless facilitate the performance of her broader subjectivity. 'I have often heard', Seacole states, 'the term "lazy Creole" applied to my country people; but I am sure I do not know what it is to be indolent'.…”