I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted and justice for the poor. (Psalm 140:12)
“In a world where there is so much to be done, I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do.” Dorothea Dix
By 1831 there were 24 states in the United States. Everywhere people were moved by the horrors of slavery, the treatment of Native Americans, war, alcohol abuse, poverty, and crime. Many Americans began to work on reforms in those areas.
Dorothea Dix contributed her efforts to reforming the treatment of the mentally ill who were often housed in prisons in horrible conditions. These poor, misunderstood people were neglected or mistreated. Dorothea called for Christians to care for the poor as the Savior did. Her campaign resulted in the building of 32 institutions in the United States where the mentally ill could be cared for in a more compassionate way.
Dorothea Lynde Dix was born on April 4, 1802 to Joseph and Mary Dix in Hampden, Maine. Today the land where she was born is called the Dorothea Dix Park. A huge stone arch stands there as a memorial commemorating Dorothea for her devotion to prison reform and the humane treatment of the insane.
Dorothea grew up in Maine when it was still unsettled and primitive. Her father was an overly zealous religious man. He forced Dorothea to sew his sermons together into books. This was in addition to helping her mother with all of the tasks that frontier women had to do to survive. It was not a happy childhood for Dorothea. When asked about her childhood she would refuse to discuss it. Instead she would say, “I never knew a childhood!”
At age 12 Dorothea was sent to live with her grandmother in Boston. Later she moved in with an aunt in Worcester, Massachusetts. Dorothea had received a basic education and was able to teach. At age 14 she began a “dame” school in her grandmother’s house in which she taught basic reading and math to 3 and 4 year olds.
At age 22 Dorothea wrote a book, “Conversations on Common Things (1824)” that went through sixty printings and yielded substantial royalties. She went on to publish several other works of religious poetry and stories that taught moral lessons to children.
Dorothea was plagued with bad health all through her life. She always drove herself really hard when she was working. Eventually the overwork caught up to her and she developed a pain in her side. When she started spitting up blood she realized it was time for her to rest. Her doctor ordered her to go to England for a cure. She left in 1836 and stayed for eighteen months with some good friends who helped her recuperate.
During her absence Dorothea’s mother and grandmother both died. This made for a very sad homecoming for Dorothea in 1837. However, Grandmother Dix had left Dorothea a small inheritance that along with her book royalties would mean that she could support herself without having to work for money.
Dorothea was thankful for this blessing but she wondered about a purpose for her life. She spent some time traveling and visiting friends but she knew that God still wanted her to be useful. She looked for ”Some nobler purpose for which to labor, something which would fill the vacuum which I felt in my soul.”
After much prayer and soul searching, about four years later, in 1841, she received a visit from John T.G. Nichols that would change her life forever.
John Nichols was in training to be a pastor. Part of his work was to teach in a women’s prison. After two sessions he decided that a mature woman would be better than a young man to teach the women and so he contacted Dorothea Dix whom he knew as a renowned teacher.
Dorothea was interested and responded, “I shall be there next Sunday.” On a freezing cold day in March, 1841 Dorothea visited the women’s prison. On a tour of the prison she discovered two poverty-stricken mentally ill women confined in cages made of rough boards. There was no heat. She asked the jailer why there wasn’t a stove in the room. He replied, “Because ‘lunatics’ don’t feel the cold.”
Outraged, Dorothea began her campaign to get stoves installed. The jailer refused and so Dorothea went before the court and with the help of influential friends got the stoves installed as well as other improvements!
Dorothea wondered how many other prisons could be so bad. She began to visit prisons outside of Boston, becoming the first person, man or woman, to conduct a major investigation of a social problem in the United States.
Dorothea had found her purpose in life.
Starting in her home state, Massachusetts, Dorothea crafted a document, called a “Memorial” that she presented to the legislature asking that the budget be increased to include money to improve the State Mental Hospital at Worcester. Many improvements were made in the state hospitals and prisons thanks to Dorothea.
Not content with just improving the conditions in hospitals and prisons in Massachusetts, Dorothea began to visit other
states including Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Maryland, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina. Everywhere she went, improvements were made.
Dorothea tried to lobby at the federal level also. She asked Congress to set aside land for hospitals all through the United States. After six years of hard work the bill was passed by both houses of Congress, but vetoed by President Franklin Pierce in 1854. He stated that the issue would be better handled at the state level.
Disappointed but undeterred, Dorothea went to Europe to study their systems of caring for the poor and unfortunate. She learned much. She met Elizabeth Fry (see my post on this blog – February 2, 2012) who brought about prison reforms in England.
When Dorothea returned home the country was in the middle of turmoil over the issue of slavery. When war broke out in 1861, Dorothea volunteered to set up field hospitals. She recruited nurses and set up training programs. She was honored after the war for her untiring efforts in bringing aid to the wounded.
After the war, Dorothea continually worked for the improvement of conditions for the mentally ill. Eventually her health problems began to plague her again. An apartment had been set aside for her at the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum. Dorothea considered it her home and there she retired when she became too ill to travel anymore in 1881. She remained there for five years and quietly died on July 17, 1887.
In 1983, Dorothea was honored by being placed on the 1 cent stamp.
One of the most important accomplishments of Dorothea was the changing of the way that American people thought about mental illness. “It is time that people should have learnt that to be insane is not to be disgraced: that sickness is not to be ranked with crime: and that mental disability is almost invariably the result of mere bodily ailment,” she wrote. Equally important was her insistence that mental illness could be cured.
Dorothea proved by her example that willing sacrifice can accomplish much. Because of her wisdom, diligence, and compassion for the mentally ill, 32 institutions were built, laws were changed, and human suffering was alleviated. “All alike may suffer,” she wrote, “the rich and the poor, the learned and the uneducated, the young, the mature, and the aged.” Her faith and love for her fellow man and her courage in never giving up, even in spite of major health issues, are an inspiration to all that one person can make a difference.
