Animal advocacy and Englishwomen, 1780-1900

by Moira Ferguson

Animal Advocacy and Englishwomen, 1780-1900: Patriots, Nation, and Empire focuses on women writers and their struggle to protect animals from abuse in Britain's transition from preindustrial to Victorian society. Looking critically at the work of Sarah Trimmer, Susanna Watts, Elizabeth Heyrick, Anna Sewell, and Frances Power Cobbe, Moira Ferguson explores the links between Britain's evolving self-definition and the debate over the humane treatment of animals. Ferguson contends that animal-advocacy writing during this period provided a means for women to register their moral outrage over national problems extending far beyond those of animal abuse, effectively allowing them to achieve a public voice as citizens. The writers in question represent multiple genres, time frames, and political approaches. Taken together, their productive lives span more than a century. They are ideologically divided on animal protection, and their political identities range from conservative Anglican Tories