You may be familiar with the name Elizabeth Blackwell, usually followed by the phrase ‘first woman doctor’. Born in Bristol in the early 19th century, she later became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree. Maybe you had a picture book about her as a child – an inspirational tale for girls. Or maybe you’ve never heard of her at all.

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The nine Blackwell siblings were the children of a paradox. Their father Samuel, a Dissenter from the Church of England, was both a sugar refiner and an abolitionist, a man who profited from a commodity that depended on enslaved labour – which he abhorred.

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