7Dorothea Lynde Dix III

“ voice for the mad”

Early Life

Born : April 4, 1802

Oldest of 3 children

Mother – “listless and self absorbed”

Father – book dealer, active Methodist

Childhood Problems/

Accomplishments Constantly moved

Felt neglected and abused

Ran away at age 12, to live with grandmother

“unusually mature” and “intellectually gifted”

Believed strongly in community service

Cont.

At age 14 – opened a private school

Ran free evening school for poor (one of 1st in nation)

Wrote the book : “Conversations on Common things”

Later Career

Practiced “Goodness of God” and “Purity of Heart”

Took over for a minister teaching a Sunday class in a women’s jail

Jail

Shocked to see conditions of jail:

Unheated

All types put together : hardened criminals (including murderers), children, and mentally ill

Prison cell:

Taking Action

Dorothea acquired a court order to provide heat and other improvements for prisoners

Started questioning the conditions in other jails

Cont.

Began an investigation on how the mentally ill were treated

Urged bills and legislatures for building an asylum for them

Hospital opened in her honor, specially for mentally ill patients

Approval

After accomplishing her goal, a letter arrived from Washington, praising her deeds

Books have been written on her

Letter to Dix

Dorothea’s Other Work

Participated in Civil War: led effort to organize

nursery corps for soldiers

Recruited women as nurses of Army Med. Bureau

Superintendant of nurses

Never missed a day of work

Cont.

“Dragon Dix” – clashed with military offi cials

Only allowed middle aged women into the program

Donated a fountain to Boston for “Thirsty Horses”

“The Reformer”

Written by John Greenleaf Whittier

One of many Songs in his book “Songs of Labor and Reform”

Talks about hope in reform

Excerpts:“I looked:  aside the dust-cloud rolled,The Waster seemed the Builder too;Upspringing from the ruined OldI saw the New.’T was but the ruin of the bad,— The wasting of the wrong and ill;Whate’er of good the old time hadWas living still.”

“Through prison walls, like Heaven-sent hope,Fresh breezes blew, and sunbeams strayed,And with the idle gallows-ropeThe young child played.Where the doomed victim in his cellHad counted o’er the weary hours,Glad school-girls, answering to the bell,Came crowned with flowers.”

Bibliography:

https://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/dorotheadix.html

http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/9579/17.html

Google images

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Dix