Sewell, Anna

Anna Sewell (1820–77) is best known for her only novel, Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions: The Autobiography of a Horse , published in 1877. Sewell's family was Quaker, but she and her mother, Mary Sewell, to whom Anna was very close, left the Friends to pursue their own independent ideas. An injury and possible immunodeficiency disorder limited Anna Sewell's mobility, but she led a busy life, at times tending to animals, driving a chaise, teaching night classes, visiting family and friends, and, near the end of her life, penning her “little book.” Sewell was against cruelty and sought to give voice to the working horse and the working people who owned him or drove him. Black Beauty is Sewell's creative and enduring contribution to the Humane Movement and to the genre of fictional autobiography. Scholars have discussed the text in light of the dress reform, antivivisection, women's rights, labor, and abolitionist movements.