Anna Sewell in Old Catton, Sewell wrote the manuscript of "Black Beauty" – in the period between 1871 and 1877. During this time her health was declining; she was often so weak that she was confined to her bed. Writing was a challenge. She dictated the text to her mother and from 1876 began to write on slips of paper which her mother then transcribed. Although the book is now considered a children's classic, Sewell originally wrote it for those who worked with horses. She said "a special aim was to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses". In many
Terri Sewell She received the Afro-American Studies Thesis Prize for her senior thesis, "Black Women in Politics: Our Time Has Come," which featured a personal interview with Shirley Chisholm, the first black U.S. Congresswoman. Sewell continued her education, receiving a master's degree with first-class Honours from Oxford University with the support of a Marshall Scholarship. At the age of 25, she published her Masters' thesis on the election of the first black members of British parliament as a book titled, "Black Tribunes: Race and Representation in British Politics" (1993). Sewell attended Harvard Law School with the help of an NAACP Legal Defense