On this day in vegan history · March 23, 1868
A Boston Lawyer Starts the MSPCA
Two horses raced forty miles to their deaths gave a Boston lawyer the outrage he needed to build an animal welfare group that outlived him by more than a century.
The facts
- Founded
- March 23, 1868, Boston, Massachusetts
- Founder
- George Thorndike Angell, a Boston lawyer
- Trigger
- Two horses raced 40 miles to their deaths, each carrying two riders
- Black Beauty giveaway
- First American edition, 1890; 2 million free copies distributed through the Bands of Mercy
On March 23, 1868, Boston lawyer George Thorndike Angell founded the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and became its first president. He had read about two horses, each pulling two riders, raced forty miles over rough roads until both died. His public protest reached Emily Appleton, a wealthy Bostonian who backed the cause, and within a month roughly 1,200 people joined the new society. Angell moved fast from outrage to law: Massachusetts passed its first general anticruelty statute within weeks of the founding. Two decades later he used the same instinct for mass persuasion on a bigger scale, publishing the first American edition of Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty in 1890 and giving away two million free copies through the children's Bands of Mercy.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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George Thorndike Angell, a Boston lawyer, founds the MSPCA and becomes its first president on March 23, after reading about an instance of cruelty in which two horses, each pulling two riders over 40 miles of rough roads, were raced to death.
MSPCA historical timeline, 1868 entry
Source: MSPCA-Angell -
Angell publishes the first American edition of Anna Sewell's humane classic, Black Beauty, and distributes 2 million free copies through the Bands of Mercy.
MSPCA historical timeline, 1890 entry
Source: MSPCA-Angell
Why it still matters
The MSPCA became a template other American humane societies copied, and Angell's Black Beauty giveaway showed that a novel, distributed free and aimed at children, could shift public feeling about animals faster than any law.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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