Dorothea Dix

DOROTHEA DIX

Dorothea Dix was born in Hampden Maine on April 4, 1802. Dorothea and her two younger siblings grew up in a harsh environment. Mr. Dix worked as a Methodist preacher and was an abusive alcoholic. Mrs. Dix was almost never in good health so she was unable to care for her children. Dorothea lived in Maine for twelve years before the Dix family moved to Vermont. Not long after the move the town of Hampden was taken over by the British in the year of 1812.

Dorothea took the role of the mother in her family for many years until she moved to live with her grandmother in the Dix mansion located in Boston. There she took dance lessons and had nice clothing. Dorothea got in trouble a lot because she was always caught giving her new things to beggars on the street. Madame Dix asked her sister if Dorothea could live with her in Worcester Massachusetts to raise her as a lady. Dorothea quickly moved in with her great aunt.

At a party Dorothea met her second cousin Edward Bangs who was a successful attorney. Dorothea told him about her plans to become a school teacher for girls. Girls at that time were not allowed to attend public schools but they could be taught by other woman privately.  Edward liked her idea and agreed to let Dorothea hold her classes in his empty store. She opened her successful school when she was fifteen.

Three years later Dorothea shut down her school and moved back to the Dix’s mansion. Edward followed her there and proposed. Dorothea said yes but couldn’t decide on a date. Dorothea was eighteen and Edward was thirty-one.

Dorothea still wanted to teach. She asked her grandmother if she could start a school in the Dix’s mansion. Her plan was to have a class for poor girls, and another class for the wealthy girls. Her grandmother was thrilled with the idea and agreed to the school. At this point Dorothea knew she did not want to marry Edward. She returned her ring to him.

Dorothea started to feel ill and she received a letter from her friend Dr. Channing asking if she would come on their trip to St. Croix and tutor his daughters. She decided to go because she thought she could fully recover from being so sick. When she returned in 1831 she got news from her good friend General Levi Lincoln that he was elected the new government of Massachusetts and his secretary of state was Edward Bangs.

Dorothea was again starting to feel ill. They later found that she had tuberculosis (tu-ber-cu-lo-sis). Tuberculosis is a contagious bacterial infection that mainly involves the lungs, but may spread to other organs. Her doctor recommended that Dorothea take a vacation. She later left to England. Dorothea stayed in England until 1841 she then went back to Boston. Meanwhile both her mother and grandmother passed away.

In 1841 Dorothea volunteered to teach woman inmates at the East Cambridge jail on Sundays. She viewed horrible images while she was teaching there. The mentally ill were kept in horrible conditions. They had no clothes no beds and hardly any food. Most people thought that if you were mentally ill then you couldn’t feel climate changes. They were mostly naked in both summer and winter. After Dorothea saw this she wanted to change it. She traveled to jails around Massachusetts taking detailed notes. She also interviewed jailers and the commoner about the mentally ill. Dorothea took all her notes and information and wrote a document to the Massachusetts legislature. Her document won over the legislature support and funds were set aside for the Worcester State Hospital.

Dorothea’s views on the mentally ill were absurd in those days. Many people thought the mentally ill were animals and should be locked up. Dorothea traveled around the United States trying to encourage other states to treat the mentally ill better. Dorothea wrote another document and sent it to the United States congress asking that five million acres be set aside for the mentally ill. Both houses passed this bill but it was vetoed by President Franklin Pierce.

Dorothea decided to go to Europe and change the way they treat the mentally ill as she did in the United States. She returned in 1854. When Dorothea was around sixty the civil war began. She volunteered to form an Amy Nursing Corps. At this time Dorothea was not healthy but she was always at work. She was soon made superintendent of Nurses for the Union Army. Dorothea raised money for medicine and supply’s. She organized hundreds of volunteers into nursing. Dorothea wanted to encourage woman’s roles in medicine. After the war she started to travel again to help southern states recover from the war. She once again became very sick and went to the New Jersey State Hospital. She stayed there until she died on July 17, 1887. She was eighty years old.