There was no gentleness in him as there was in his father; but only hardness, a hard voice, a hard eye, a hard hand, and I felt from the first that what he wanted was to wear all the spirit out of me, and just make me into a quiet, humble, obedient piece of horse-flesh. (7.7)
Over and over, Black Beauty shows us the good and bad of animal treatment—and here's more of the bad. While some men have empathy toward the animals they raise, some don't. Ginger tells the story of her childhood to Beauty, and while Beauty was raised by a kind farmer, Ginger wasn't so lucky. She describes how miserable it was to grow up under the care of men who only cared about her obedience, and not her well-being. Because of this, she doesn't trust men. In her situation, who would?
