Published in 1877, in the last years of Anna Sewell's life, Black Beauty sold over 50 million copies worldwide in 50 different languages.[15] This different viewpoint sparked people's interest to speak for horses' well-being and implement legislation.[16] According to Sewell, providing information was her original goal of horse injustice.[1] Although the shift of perspectives was seen as good for some, it was also an issue to others including horse owners and people who sold such equipment for horses (equipment like blinders).[17] It has been alleged that Black Beauty was banned in some countries, e.g. South Africa, for containing the words "Black" and "Beauty" during its apartheid restrictions on African natives.[18] However, Claire Datnow, in her memoir Behind the Walled Garden of Apartheid: Growing up White in Segregated South Africa,[19] writes that this "fact" was a standing joke among her circle of friends, invented to make fun of the "ignorance of the censors"—the idea being that Black Beauty had been banned "because the censors thought it referred to a black woman."
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