Dorothea Dix was an American activist. She was a teacher and reformer. In class, we have studied “The Teacher Who Changed My Life,” by Nicholas Gage. I’ve chosen to research a little information about Dorothea Dix because I had learned about her in history class.
Dorothea Dix changed prison systems. She saw that the law had put mentally ill people in prison with murders and other people that committed crimes. So she convinced states from all over the United States to build institutions for the mentally ill. She was also a author.
She was born in Hampden, Maine in 1802. Her father Joseph was a Methodist preacher who was always away from home. Her mother suffered from difficult bouts of depression.
Several years later, she got a job teaching inmates in an East Cambridge prison. Some inmates suffered from what they had to do. Some inmates were brutally beaten and some were sexually abused. So Dix came up with a way to make the facility better. She could visit every facility she could attend to documenting the conditions at that facility. Then she brought out her findings at the legislature of Massachusetts. She then felt bad for the prisoners and mentally ill people at the facilities on how they were treated and how they were fed.
Later on in her life, she did services a week after the Civil War began. When she arrived in Washington on April 1861, she was sent to Union Army Hospitals and to see the nursing staff that they are requiring. She was the first American to be the superintendent of nursing.
After the war Dorothea Dix became a social reformer. She traveled to Europe and other places in the world. She continued to write and offer guidance the treatment of mentally ill. She gave ideas to the U.S. government to redesign hospitals and build new hospitals.
Gage, the author of “The Teacher Who Changed My Life,” was an immigrant. When he came to the US, he was placed in a special education class because he spoke Greek. This wasn’t fair, just like the mentally ill people who had been placed in prison in the 1800s.
Have you ever read or heard about Dorothea Dix? If not, do you have a person you admire for standing up for others like Dix did? Let me know in a comment below!