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Dorothea Dix

Dorothea Dix. By Tommy Larkin, Sarah Berman, and Rachel Katz. Unitarianism. American Unitarianism developed in eastern Massachusetts in the years following the Revolutionary War Questioned tenets of orthodox Calvinism Believed that humans were capable of both good and bad acts

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Dorothea Dix

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  1. Dorothea Dix By Tommy Larkin, Sarah Berman, and Rachel Katz

  2. Unitarianism • American Unitarianism developed in eastern Massachusetts in the years following the Revolutionary War • Questioned tenets of orthodox Calvinism • Believed that humans were capable of both good and bad acts • Unitarians preferred logic to faith and often questioned the Bible if it challenged common sense or the laws of nature

  3. Individual Contributions • (1824) Wrote Conversations on Common Things • book that instructed young people through a dialogue between an imaginary mother and her daughter • (1825) Wrote Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts • Described horrific conditions of insane patients in facilities • Urged to separate them from the sane in almshouses and jails and to create mental hospitals • Insisted that therapy could cure most cases of insanity—though she considered religion, rather than medical science, the most effective remedy. • (1845) Published Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States • As a direct result of her efforts, 15 states passed reform legislation, and 32 hospitals for the mentally ill were built.

  4. Individual Contributions (continued) • Got Congress to pass a bill to raise money for mental hospitals by selling 5 million acres of land from the public domain • but President Franklin Pierce said it allocated money for other purposes than those allowed in the constitution and vetoed it • Became superintendent of women nurses during the Civil War • Was very strict and disliked by other nurses • Complained that "this dreadful civil war has as a huge beast consumed my whole life"

  5. Effects of Contributions • New Jersey was the first state to establish a state mental hospital in March 1845 • Pennsylvania followed a month later • States began passing reform legislation and establishing hospitals for the mentally ill

  6. Social Reformist or Women’s Reformist? • Dix was not a feminist. On the contrary, she criticized the Seneca Falls Convention, held in New York in 1848, that demanded rights for women • She believed that if women strove for legal equality, they would lose their moral superiority. • “I do not think that women are oppressed in this country, and if they are intelligently educated, they will do themselves and the country, I think, a truer and nobler service by influencing men in right directions than in attending the polls, and attempting to share abroad, in all masculine pursuits.”

  7. Bibliography Bumb, Jenn. "Dorothea Dix." Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2010. <http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/dorotheadix.html>. Dix, Dorothea. "Memorial Soliciting a State Hospital for the Protection and Cure of the Insane, Submitted to the General Assembly of North Carolina." Raleigh, N.C.: Seaton Gales, 1848. Available online. URL: http://Docsouth.Unc.Edu/Nc/Dixdl/Dixdl.html. Accessed June 26, 2008. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=E15068&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 11, 2010). Dix, Dorothea. "Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts." American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=E06830&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 11, 2010). Grolier Incorporated. "Dix, Dorothea Lynde (1802-1887)." The New Book ofKnowledge. Vol. 4. Danbury, Connecticut. 231. Print. Hamilton, Neil A. "Dix, Dorothea." American Social Leaders and Activists, American Biographies. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2002. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE52&iPin=ASL075&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 11, 2010). Neem, Johann. "Unitarianism." In Gilje, Paul A., and Gary B. Nash, eds. Encyclopedia of American History: Revolution and New Nation, 1761 to 1812, vol. 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2003. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp? "Unitarianism and Universalism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. 11  Apr.  2010  <http://school.eb.com/eb/article-9109455>. ItemID=WE52&iPin=EAHIII369&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 11, 2010). Viney, Wayne. "Dorothea Dix." Unitarian Universalist Historical Society (UUHS) . N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2010. <http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/      dorotheadix.html>.

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