Dorothea Dix

Personal Statement: Hello, my name is Dorothea Lynde Dix. I was born on April 4, 1802 in Hampden, Maine. I shared a small cottage with my parents and two younger brothers. My father, Joseph Dix, is a religious fanatic and a minister. Because my family is quite poor, I traveled to Boston to live with my grandparents, and then with my aunt in Worcester, Massachusetts. I began my teaching career at age fourteen, in my own home. Three years later in 1819, I founded the first school for girls with a charity school that young poor girls can attend for free. I spent my days teaching in the morning, and reading and writing throughout the evening and night. My most famous work is a textbook that goes by the name of "Conversations of the Common Things", published in 1824. In 1827, I was diagnosed with tuberculosis. I went on a retreat in the fall of 1830, and when I returned I continued teaching followed by taking care of my ill grandmother. I was so overwhelmed that I collapsed and lost the use of one of my lungs. Then, I moved to Liverpool, England for eighteen months in hope of a recovery. In England, I learned of two very important men that inspired me to investigate the dangerous situation of the insane in the United States. Their names were Philippe Pinel and William Tuke. After my grandmother passed in 1837, I received an inheritance that freed me from working as a teacher. I regained my strength and visited a jail in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. They led to to these filthy jail cells that were occupied with a number of mentally ill women. Shocked by this, I visited another 500 towns with the results of finding more mistreated mentally ill women. I was enraged. 

Issues: I was an american activist that believed that the mentally ill should not be mistreated. I strongly believed that they could be cured and helped and I took a large part in mental health reform and education. Also, I was trying to enforce the idea of equality for women as much as I possibly could.

Solutions: To solve this issue, I created schools and the first mental asylums. I wrote many memorials to state legislatures, demanding to protect my suffering gender. My petition was passed and a bill which provided funds for the mentally ill at the Worcester State Hospital. I extended this and brought this issue to the federal courts. Congress denied my requests. I wanted to begin a new project that proposed that revenue collected from the sale of public land to be used to establish a federal fund for the mentally ill, blind, deaf, and mute across the nation. They disregarded my requests until 1854, after I described all of the disturbing things I saw at the jails. My bill was vetoed but my determination did not end there. I was not being heard loud enough. My determination led me to form institutions and asylums that treated the mentally ill with proper care in North America and Europe.

Relationship to others: At the dinner party I would be most comfortable talking to women rights activists such as Catherine Beecher, Margaret Fuller, and Angelina Grimke. Also I would like to sit with people who are interested in education reform. I would not feel comfortable sitting next to Susan B. Anthony because she is a feminist.