Dorothea Dix
Alice Iglesias
Background Information
- Dorothea was born April 4, 1802 in Hampden, Maine.
- She died July 17, 1887.
- Raise by her grandma after the age of 12 in Vermont.
- Dix was the first born out of three.
- Her father, Joseph Dix, teached Dorothea how to read and write at an early age, which helped her be ahead of the whole school, and was a religious fanatic and a distributor of religious tracts. He was a Methodist preacher but was an alcoholic.
- Dix's mom suffered terrible headaches.
- Dorothea was the one that took care in the family household through out her childhood.
The Asylum Movement
- The Asylum movement was started by Dorothea in Massachusetts.
- She started this movement because when she had a job at a prison teaching inmates, she saw how terrible they were treated.
- Dix would also visit prisons and asylums that she was allowed in to she witnessed how prisoners or the insane were starved, raped, left naked, chained, whipped, and left with no sanitation or heat.
Goal of this movement: to improve conditions for the imprisoned and insane.
Why And How Dorothea Got Involved
- The way Dix got involved in the movement was how she went to the legislature of Massachusetts to make a change. She wanted a better habitat or place for the convicts and the mentally ill.
- Dorothea visited many prisons and asylums which she called a "state-support care".
- her movement traveled to New York and Rhode Island also in Europe. Eventually all around the world.
- Dorothea established five hospitals in America while pleading for human rights to Queen Victoria and The Pope.
How It All Got Started
Dorothea Dix
This video explains what Dorothea does and how she changed life for the imprisoned the mentally ill.