Black Beauty's Feminism (and Other Notes)

Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty is one of those classic texts popularized as children’s literature that I completely missed as an actual child.  Therefore, when I saw it on the reading list for our class I was excited to delve into a novel I’d heard much about for most of my life (as is the case with most texts assigned in this class).  I’ve noticed strong elements of Sewell’s personal life reflected in the Introduction and Part I of Black Beauty.  Clearly, she utilized her art as a reflection for her personal morals.  The positive treatment of animals pervades the entire first section of this book—Black Beauty himself experiences mostly positive treatment, although he relies tales of disrespect and abuse, such as explaining the use of bridles and their negative effects upon horses.  A heavy reliance on God also pervades Black Beauty’s tales, attributing existence to God’s creation and utilizing phrases such as “‘God is Love’”¹ (47).  A strong presentation of these ideals constructs Sewell’s specific moral culture within the context of a fictional reality. 

Most impressively, though, are the undertones of gender equality present in the novel.  We obviously must be way of labeling Black Beauty as Feminist, as doing so would be retroactive and would use terminology and concepts not yet popularized in the social sphere.  However, elements of the book do portray positive views of women.  The horses themselves are effeminized—humans in general are referred to as masculine, immediately gendering the human race as male.  The separation between humans and animals, most notable the mistreatment of those animals, represents the unequal male/female relationship of real society.  At one point, Ginger states, “men were my natural enemies, and that I must defend myself”¹ (30).  Although the literal understanding is that she as a horse must protect herself from humanity’s cruelty, this statement reaches farther than that, commenting upon very real aspects of relationships between males and females.  At another point, she states “men were both brutes and blockheads,”¹ further enriching these quasi-Feminist undertones (37).  The introduction to Black Beauty even recalls Ruth Padel’s statement that the novel is “‘almost … one of the great feminist texts’”¹ (xxii).  These notions of gender equality establish a strong introduction for analysis of the rest of the novel. 

¹Anna Sewell, Black Beauty, Oxford University Press.  2012.