Anna Sewell was born on 30 March 1820 in Great
Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. Her father was a bank
manager and her mother was a popular writer of books
for young people. The family were Quakers and strongly
believed that they should show love for all and compassion
for those in less fortunate circumstances. This also
included the animals that shared their lives.
In Victorian England, horses were used in industry, and
were often treated badly. Anna and her mother were
appalled if they saw a horse being mistreated and often
showed their disapproval to the horse’s owner.
When she was fourteen, Anna suffered a fall in which she
injured her knee. This never healed and left her unable
to walk without the help of a crutch. Over the following
years, she became increasingly disabled. However, she
learnt to drive a horse-drawn carriage and took great
pleasure in taking her father to and from the station on his
way to work. She was a very skilled driver and was known
for her ability to control the horses by the sound of her
voice alone. She often drove with a very loose rein and
never used a whip.
Anna was very concerned about the humane treatment
of animals and her Quaker beliefs meant that she was
opposed to tormenting animals for pleasure and to
hunting for sport. After reading an essay on animals by
Horace Bushnell (a leading American theologian), Anna
declared that she wished ‘to induce kindness, sympathy,
and an understanding treatment of horses’.
Sewell’s introduction to writing began in her youth when
she helped to edit her mother’s books. During the last
seven or eight years of her life, Sewell was confined to her
house due to her failing health. She spent this time writing
Black Beauty, a fictional autobiography of a gentle horse,
which drew on all her memories of the abusive treatment
she had seen. Unfortunately, Sewell never saw the eventual
success of her book. She died on 25 April 1878, only
a year after Black Beauty was published. Ironically, at
Sewell’s funeral her mother noticed that all the horses in
the funeral procession were wearing bearing reins and she
insisted that they be removed.