Black Beauty exposes the harsh realities of animal abuse in Victorian England, where horses were often subjected to cruel treatment for the sake of fashion, convenience, and ignorance.
Anna Sewell paints a vivid picture of the suffering these animals endured, from being forced to wear harmful devices like the "bearing rein" to working tirelessly with little rest or care.
Through the eyes of Black Beauty and his companions, readers witness firsthand the physical and emotional toll that mistreatment takes on these creatures. Sewell’s intention was to shed light on the cruelty that many overlooked, emphasizing that this abuse was not only prevalent but also unnecessary and inhumane.
While the novel starkly portrays the brutal treatment of horses, it also serves as a powerful story of hope and change.
Sewell contrasts moments of cruelty with instances of kindness, showing that humane treatment can lead to positive outcomes. Characters like John Manly and Jerry Barker represent the compassionate side of humanity, treating their horses with respect and care, resulting in loyal and healthy animals. These characters, along with the moral lessons embedded in Black Beauty’s story, offer a glimpse of hope that change is possible.
The novel suggests that through empathy and education, society can reform and create a more compassionate world for animals.
Ultimately, Black Beauty is not just a tale of suffering, but a call to action. The novel inspired widespread awareness about the treatment of horses, leading to reforms in animal welfare both in England and beyond. Sewell's story moved readers to reconsider their relationship with animals and helped spark changes in legislation, particularly in the banning of the bearing rein.
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The enduring impact of Black Beauty lies in its ability to evoke empathy and inspire change, proving that even in the face of cruelty, there is always hope for a kinder, more humane world.
OVERVIEW
Black Beauty, a longtime favourite with readers, is an engaging story told from the perspective of a horse. Black Beauty's experiences lead him through a diverse series of encounters and bring him into contact with many characters, including other horses with stories of their own to tell.
Sewell uses Black Beauty's story to explore her theme of cruelty to animals. She shows the positive results of kind treatment, while attacking the animal abuse that was common during her lifetime. Sewell believed that animal cruelty was a societal problem that could not be ignored, a problem that was often caused by ignorance and fashion, as well as intentional abuse.
The line between good and evil is clearly drawn, and this fable is intended to leave the reader with a strong moral lesson that it is better to be a good person than an evil one. The horses are mistreated through no fault of their own by uncaring or insensitive people.
In Sewell's story, the world is cruel because it is inhabited by corrupted people, who have the power to reform if they wish.
STORYLINE
Black Beauty is told from the viewpoint of the horse, Black Beauty himself. It starts with his peaceful early life as a young foal on a farm in England.
As the story progresses, Black Beauty faces many challenges, from pulling cabs in London to eventually finding peace in retirement in the countryside. Through his experiences, we see acts of both cruelty and kindness. Each chapter reveals a story that shares a lesson about the importance of treating horses with care, compassion, and understanding.
Author Anna Sewell includes detailed descriptions of horse behavior, giving the novel a realistic feel.
The book sheds light on the harsh conditions faced by cab drivers in London during that era. They struggled with high license fees and low fixed fares, making it difficult to make a living. A note in some versions of the book mentions that after Black Beauty was published, changes were made to the licensing system, including reducing the fees.
SETTING
Written during a major period of growth in the movement for the humane treatment of animals, Black Beauty became the work that represented the cause. Black Beauty takes place in the same period in which Sewell lived: the mid to late 19th century.
Illustrating the range of uses to which horses were put during the period, Black Beauty works as a saddle and carriage horse on a wealthy country estate, is rented as a beast of burden from a livery stable, pulls a cab, and draws a cart through the crowded streets of London.
The frequent changes in setting provide a valuable overview of life during the Victorian era.
Horses were not only the primary mode of transport during Sewell's lifetime, they were also becoming popular with the middle class for recreation and exercise, and as status symbols. The need for new riders to learn about good horse care and the increasing popularity of the harmful bearing rein, which often damaged the horses by forcing them to hold their heads too high, inspired Sewell to write Black Beauty.
She decided that a novel would be the most effective means of voicing her concerns because it would appeal to a large audience.
THEMES AND CHARACTERS
Sewell wrote Black Beauty to expose the widespread mistreatment of horses. She depicts horses that receive humane care as well as those that are abused.
The contrasts in the horses' personalities are sometimes startling. Three forms of cruelty come to light: deliberate cruelty, cruelty in the name of fashion, and cruelty committed in ignorance. On several occasions, innocent bystanders intercede on behalf of an abused horse, illustrating the principle that preventing cruelty to animals is everyone's responsibility.
Sewell is particularly appalled at the common contemporary practice of using a device called the bearing rein (or checkrein) to prevent the horse from lowering its head.
Black Beauty's main equine companions are Ginger and Merrylegs. Ginger is a high-tempered horse whose training and temperament contrast sharply with Black Beauty's. She is bad-tempered largely because of the mistreatment she suffered when young, while Black Beauty is good-tempered largely because he enjoyed humane treatment when young. Even Ginger, with all her problems, eventually quietens down during her time at Birtwick Hall because of the calming effect of the humane treatment that she receives there.
Merrylegs is a pony who, like Black Beauty, embodies the positive results of humane treatment. Other major horse characters include Sir Oliver, whose tail was cut off when he was a colt, and Captain, a former cavalryhorse.
The main human characters are Black Beauty's first owner, whose name is never revealed; his second owner, Squire Gordon, of Birtwick Hall; John Manly and little Joe Green, the grooms at Birtwick Hall; and the cabby Jerry Barker and his family.
These kind and knowledgeable people strive to treat their horses well, and their horses show the good results of their kind treatment.
The cruel humans are all minor characters, including the various cart drivers who are chastised for deliberately abusing their horses.
Two of the more significant characters who are guilty of animal abuse are Samson Ryder, a horse trainer, and Nicholas Skinner, a cab owner. Ryder first trained Ginger, inciting her bad temper. Skinner eventually obtains Black Beauty, whom he hires out along with many tired, old horses at rates so high that cabbies must overwork the horses in order to earn a living.
He never gives his horses a day off, proclaiming: “My plan is to work 'em as long as they'll go, and then to sell 'em for what they'll fetch, at the knacker's or elsewhere.”
Another of Black Beauty's themes is the difficulty of the cab driver's life in general and the particular difficulty of dealing with the hypocrisy of churchgoers who use a cab to get to church.
At the time when Black Beauty was written, keeping the Sabbath—that is, not working on Sunday—was something that many people thought was important.
People who hired cabs to go to church on Sunday were, while keeping the Sabbath themselves, inducing the cabbies who drove them to church to break their own Sabbath. In what may have been either a journal entry or an unfinished letter, Sewell wrote of a conversation she had had with a cab driver, and her resulting intention to portray this hypocrisy in Sabbath keeping.
In this piece of writing, she relates the cab driver's story of a friend whose churchgoing passengers were so blatantly hypocritical as to hand the cab driver a tract on keeping the Sabbath as they got out of his cab on their way to Sunday service.
Aside from the obvious stance on the humane treatment of animals, Black Beauty addresses several other social issues. The character Reuben Smith injures Black Beauty, drives his family into poverty with his alcoholism, and ultimately kills himself, illustrating the problem of alcohol abuse.
The anti-war sentiments expressed by Captain echo the philosophy of non-violence, particularly as defined by Quakerism. Sewell also addresses the issue of the seven-day working week.
LITERARY TECHNIQUE
Black Beauty's literary technique is best understood in the light of the tradition from which the novel came: that of the 19th-century improving book.
Black Beauty is very much in the tradition of the moralistic ballads and books of its time, especially those that present self-improvement and social justice lessons in a story written in simple language to suit the reading level of their intended audience—children and working-class adults of limited education.
Sewell's mother, Mary, wrote several popular improving books, which Sewell read and helped to edit. Of Mary Sewell's works, Black Beauty most closely resembles Patience Hart's First Experience in Service (1862).
Mary and Anna Sewell both used the literary device of giving some characters names that comment on their personalities. The main character in Mary's book on housemaids is Patience Hart, who is a girl with a patient heart. Similarly, in Black Beauty, Filcher the groom steals Black Beauty's oats to feed to his rabbits, Alfred Smirk is a lazy and conceited humbug, and Seedy Sam is a down-on-his-luck cab driver who works his horses cruelly hard.
The conflicts and character development provide the book with a circular structure. Raised in the country, Black Beauty undergoes a series of adventures with different masters and companions, ending up back in the country.
During the 19th century, circular plots were thought to impart a sense of completeness and to be the best device to show how characters changed throughout the course of a book.
Impact and Reception
Upon its release, Black Beauty resonated deeply with readers, leading to widespread calls for reforms to improve the treatment of horses.
Within two years, a million copies had been sold in the United States. Animal rights groups often handed out copies of the book to horse drivers and stable workers to raise awareness.
The portrayal of the bearing rein in the story led to its eventual ban in England, and public interest in animal welfare grew in the U.S. as well. The novel’s impact has endured over time, with Black Beauty being hailed as one of the most influential books on animal rights. It has even been compared to *Uncle Tom's Cabin* for its role in inspiring social change.
ADAPTATIONS
Twentieth Century-Fox produced the best-known film version of Black Beauty in 1946, directed by Max Nosseck and starring Mona Freeman. This version is rather loosely based on Sewell's original work, including a young female character not in the book and the recasting of Merrylegs as a successor to Black Beauty rather than a companion to him.
The timeless tale of Black Beauty has been adapted into film and television numerous times, capturing the hearts of audiences worldwide. Early adaptations include Your Obedient Servant (1917) and Black Beauty (1921), both directed by Edward H. Griffith. Later, Black Beauty (1946), directed by Max Nosseck, and Black Beauty (1971), directed by James Hill, brought new cinematic interpretations of Anna Sewell's beloved novel. The story also made its way to television, most notably in the series The Adventures of Black Beauty (1972–1974), produced by London Weekend Television.
Animated and televised adaptations continued to keep Black Beauty alive in the public consciousness. In 1978, both Hanna-Barbera and a TV mini-series brought the classic to new audiences.
Further versions followed, including Black Beauty (1987) by Burbank Films Australia and the 1994 film starring Docs Keepin Time.
More recently, a 2020 adaptation distributed by Disney+ featured Kate Winslet, showcasing a fresh take on the classic story for modern viewers.
In addition to these adaptations, Walt Disney Productions produced a musical LP adaptation in 1966 under its Disneyland Records label. With narration and singing by Robie Lester, and music by Disney's musical director Tutti Camarata, this version mirrored the style of an old-time radio program.
Though Disney never produced a direct animated or live-action version, they eventually acquired the distribution rights to one of the film adaptations.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Sewell was born on March 30, 1820, in Yarmouth, to Quaker parents of gentle beliefs and practices. She lived in London, in a combined house and clothing shop in Bishopsgate and in Dalston, where the family moved in 1822.
Her humanitarianism developed early, as is evidenced by an event that occurred in Dalston. When Sewell and her brother Philip learned of the Irish potato famine, they forfeited a long-awaited holiday in order to send money to Ireland. Fortunately for the children, an uncle soon sent them to the seaside at his own expense.
Similarly, Sewell displayed sensitivity with regard to the treatment of animals early in her life. At nine years of age, she refused to allow a man to retrieve a blackbird he had shot in her yard and scolded him for his cruelty. As both a child and an adult, Sewell often spoke out against the abuse of horses.
Sewell never married, and she remained with her parents throughout her life except when visiting relatives or attending health spas and clinics for her weak ankle. Injured in a fall when she was 14, her ankle never healed.
When the family moved to Lancing on the south coast in 1845, the injury worsened, and Sewell was often barely able to walk. She travelled around in a pony and a cart that she allegedly guided in the same way that Black Beauty's favourite drivers handled him: she simply held the reins in her hand, voicing the directions for the horse to follow.
Sewell began writing Black Beauty at the age of 51, during one of her worst periods of invalidism. Ill and often fatigued, she dictated much of the work to her mother.
This laborious process limited Sewell's productivity to a few pages a day, and Black Beauty took six years to complete. In 1877 she sold all the rights to Jarrold's, a Norwich publisher, for just 20 pounds. Sewell died aged 58 on April 25, 1878, in Old Catton, Norfolk, with the knowledge that her book had been a success.
During Sewell's funeral, her mother noticed that the horses in the procession were all wearing bearing reins. Knowing that Sewell disliked the use of the harmful reins, she insisted on having them removed.