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'…we call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.'

When his beloved owners are forced to sell him, Black Beauty leaves his life as a young, care-free colt behind him and embarks on a working life of misery. Cruelly treated by his new masters, Anna Sewell rails against animal mistreatment in this poignant tale of a horse whose spirit can not be broken.

Anna Sewell, (born March 30, 1820, Yarmouth, Norfolk, England—died April 25, 1878, Old Catton, Norfolk), British author of the children’s classic Black Beauty.

Sewell’s concern for the humane treatment of horses began early in life when she spent many hours driving her father to and from the station from which he left for work. She was crippled at a young age, and though she had difficulty walking, she could drive a horse-drawn carriage. Later, after reading an essay on animals by Horace Bushnell, she stated that one of her goals in writing was “to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses.”