As the various equine and human characters in Black Beauty discuss various forms of cruelty, many suggest much the same thing though in slightly different ways: that all beings, whether they be people, horses, or dogs, deserve to live a dignified life; and that this right is God-given. Black Beauty and his various companions often define dignity in terms of bodily autonomy. For instance, the horse Sir Oliver speaks passionately against the practice of docking (cutting off) horses’ tails and dogs’ ears and tails, something that he suggests doesn’t acknowledge the belief that God created animals with the body parts they need to stay healthy and comfortable. Sir Oliver’s tail is docked, and he notes that without a long tail, he’s not only less attractive—he also has no way to brush flies off his body, which makes summers nearly intolerable. He also mentions a dog whose young puppies had their ears and tails cut off. Again, Sir Oliver insists that the people who carried out this cruelty weren’t respecting that dogs’ ear flaps serve a purpose (to protect the inner ear) and were therefore violating what God intended.
When it comes to the novel’s human characters, many of those Black Beauty considers good use much the same logic as Sir Oliver—and they suggest that respecting animals’ bodies, and by extension respecting what God intended animals should be like, is one way that they can be more virtuous and can be better religious people. Abusing animals, whether on purpose or by accident, is in turn something they link to evil and to the devil. This is why at Birtwick, Squire Gordon and John Manly refuse to use bearing reins (reins that hold horses’ heads in an unnaturally high position). Horses, Squire Gordon insists, were designed to use their bodies in a certain way—and a device like a bearing rein, that hinders a horse’s ability to use their body in that way, is therefore cruel. While these kind people insist that horses have God-given rights to be treated well, have their bodies respected, and to have a balance of exercise and rest, the novel portrays people who violate horses’ dignity and bodily autonomy as less virtuous, and as poor practitioners of religion. While the novel suggests that cab drivers like Jerry, who refuses to work on Sunday so he can attend church services, is more virtuous than those like Seedy Sam who work Sundays, it also acknowledges that Seedy Sam is a victim of people who are even less virtuous. Those people are the ones who insist on attending church services far enough away from their homes to necessitate a cab, or those who value their clothes’ cleanliness more than they value Seedy Sam’s right to have a day of rest. Religion done right, per the novel, means championing the dignity and bodily autonomy of all people and animals—and part of being appropriately religious, the novel suggests, is making sacrifices in one’s own life to ensure the comfort and dignity of others.
Dignity and Religion ThemeTracker
Dignity and Religion Quotes in Black Beauty
Then as soon as we were out of the village, he would give me a few miles at a spanking trot, and then bring me back as fresh as before, only clear of the fidgets, as he called them. Spirited horses, when not enough exercised, are often called skittish, when it is only play; and some grooms will punish them, but our John did not, he knew it was only high spirits.
“They healed in time, and they forgot the pain, but the nice soft flap that of course was intended to protect the delicate part of their ears from dust and injury was gone for ever. Why don’t they cut their own children’s ears into points to make them look sharp? Why don’t they cut the end off of their noses to make them look plucky? One would be just as sensible as the other. What right have they to torment and disfigure God’s creatures?”
“I must say, Mr Sawyer, that more unmanly, brutal treatment of a little pony it was never my painful lot to witness; and by giving way to such passions you injure your own character as much, nay more, than you injure your horse, and remember, we shall all have to be judged according to our works, whether they be towards man or towards beast.”
“[…] but what stuck in my mind was this, he said that cruelty was the devil’s own trade mark, and if we saw any one who took pleasure in cruelty, we might know who he belonged to, for the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and a tormentor to the end. On the other hand, where we saw people who loved their neighbours, and were kind to man and beast, we might know that was God’s mark, for ‘God is Love.’”
York came round to our heads and shortened the rein himself, one hole, I think; every little makes a difference, be it for better or worse, and that day we had a steep hill to go up. Then I began to understand what I had heard of. Of course I wanted to put my head forward and take the carriage up with a will, as we had been used to; but no, I had to pull with my head up now, and that took all the spirit out of me, and the strain came on my back and legs.
“I was at a dealer’s once, who was training me and another horse to go as a pair; he was getting our heads up, as he said, a little higher and a little higher every day. A gentleman who was there asked him why he did so; ‘Because,’ said he, ‘people won’t buy them unless we do. The London people always want their horses to carry their heads high, and to step high; of course it is very bad for the horses, but then it is good for trade. The horses soon wear up, or get diseased, and they come for another pair.’”
I said, “I have heard people talk about war as if it was a very fine thing.”
“Ah!” said he, “I should think they never saw it. No doubt it is very fine when there is no enemy, when it is just exercise and parade, and sham-fight. Yes, it is very fine then; but when thousands of good brave men and horses are killed, or crippled for life, it has a very different look.”
“Do you know what they fought about?” said I.
“No,” he said, “that is more than a horse can understand, but the enemy must have been awfully wicked people, if it was right to go all that way over the sea on purpose to kill them.”
“Well,” said Larry, “you’ll never be a rich man.”
“Most likely not,” said Jerry, “but I don’t know that I shall be the less happy for that. I have heard the commandments read a great many times, and I never noticed that any of them said, ‘Thou shalt be rich’; and there are a good many curious things said in the New Testament about rich men, that I think would make me feel rather queer if I was one of them.”
“I read that God made man, and He made horses and all the other beasts, and as soon as He had made them, He made a day of rest, and bade that all should rest one day in seven; and I think, sir, He must have known what was good for them, and I am sure it is good for me; I am stronger and healthier altogether, now that I have a day of rest; the horses are fresh too, and do not wear up nearly so fast.”
“’Tis not for me to lay down plans for other people,” said Jerry, “but if they can’t walk so far, they can go to what is nearer; and if it should rain they can put on their mackintoshes as they do on a week-day. If a thing is right, it can be done, and if it is wrong, it can be done without; and a good man will find a way; and that is as true for us cabmen as it is for the church-goers.”
“[…] and I say ‘tis a mockery to tell a man that he must not overwork his horse, for when a beast is downright tired, there’s nothing but the whip that will keep his legs agoing—you can’t help yourself—you must put your wife and children before the horse, the masters must look to that, we can’t. I don’t ill-use my horse for the sake of it; none of you can say I do. There’s wrong lays somewhere—never a day’s rest—never a quiet hour with the wife and children.”
I said, “You used to stand up for yourself if you were ill-used.”
“Ah!” she said, “I did once, but it’s no use; men are strongest, and if they are cruel and have no feeling, there is nothing that we can do, but just bear it, bear it on and on to the end. I wish the end was come, I wish I was dead. I have seen dead horses, and I am sure they do not suffer pain. I wish I may drop down dead at my work, and not be sent off to the knacker’s.”
The drayman was proved to be very drunk, and was fined, and the brewer had to pay damages to our master; but there was no one to pay damages to poor Captain.
“Is it not better,” she said, “to lead a good fashion, than to follow a bad one? A great many gentlemen do not use bearing reins now; our carriage horses have not worn them for fifteen years, and work with much less fatigue than those who have them; besides,” she added, in a very serious voice, “we have no right to distress any of God’s creatures without a very good reason; 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.”
There were poor men trying to sell a worn-out beast for two or three pounds, rather than have the greater loss of killing him. Some of them looked as if poverty and hard times had hardened them all over; but there were others that I would have willingly used the last of my strength in serving; poor and shabby, but kind and human, with voices that I could trust.