Dorothea Dix tried her hand at many professions before finding her place as one of the first female activists. The New England native wasn’t satisfied after her stints as a teacher, a governess or a writer, but as a tireless crusader for the mentally ill, Dix was able to work with American states to provide decent care for the insane.
Born in Maine in 1802 and raised in Massachusetts, Dix suffered a debilitating breakdown by her mid-thirties. Desperate for a cure for her unhappiness, she went to England and met the Rathbones, well-known Quakers and social reformers in the UK. While staying with the Rathbones, she met people who believed the government should do more to look after the social and mental well-being of its citizens. She was in England during the British lunacy reform movement, when investigations into “madhouses” and insane asylums were launched.
When she came back to America, she launched a state wide investigation of how Massachusetts cared for its insane poor. She found widespread abuse in the system and published her results in a report, Memorial, to the state government. She described Massachusetts’ mentally insane as “chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience.” The report was successful in getting fund to expand the state’s mental hospital and Dix has found her calling.
She set off on a countrywide trip to document the conditions of the country’s “lunatics,” and published reports to state lawmakers. In North Carolina, the Hospital for Mental Health is still known as the Dorothea Dix Hospital.
When the Civil War broke out, Dix was appointed the Superintendent of Union Army Nurses, a title she held without a salary for five years. She was a respected crusader for health causes, and well known for her independence and passion. These traits didn’t translate into an ability to manage a large group of female nurses and her caring for both Union and Confederate soldiers did not win her points in the eyes of some up North. She was eventually fired from this post and considered herself a failure in this sense but many remember her for her unbiased caring.
In her old age, Dix moved into the New Jersey State Hospital to live out her later years and is known to this day as creating the first generation of American mental asylums.
Know any modern day women who are also healthcare crusaders? Let us know, comment below!
Tags: dorothea dix, do something, womens history
